


Bad Dog

by Xazz



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Bad Puns, Blow Jobs, Cat Ears, Confessions, Dick Jokes, Dirty Talk, Friendship, Frotting, Heavy Petting, I swear the plot is in there somewhere, I'm real disappointed that isn't a tag already, Jealousy, Loud Sex, Love Confessions, M/M, Massage, Masturbation, Mutual Masturbation, Mutual Pining, Omnic Crisis, Omnic Racism, Omnics, PWP, Pining, Puns & Word Play, Sexual Humor, Shower Sex, War, cat boy, erotic hand holding, erotic pool playing, jerking off, petting, pre game, puns, yes in this fic there is a difference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 16:45:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 52,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9557690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xazz/pseuds/Xazz
Summary: Before they were Overwatch Gabriel and Jack busted omniums for the UN military. There's just one problem with busting omniums is that even when everything goes according to plan that just means it's going to go to shit.Also, Jack has cat ears.





	1. Hat Hair

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know what I’m doing. My life is flashing before my eyes because I’m fucking writing fucking cat boys. Again. I thought I was better than this. I guess I’m still fucking trash.
> 
> Also, I’m still figuring out how these two sound, forgive the bad voices =_= In general, I have no idea what I’m even doing but who cares there’s porn.

It was just a thing some people were. You didn’t talk about it and most of the time it was totally ignored. Except of course the times it wasn’t ignored because people were, as people were prone to be, assholes. Gabriel had been told by his mother it was rude to stare at or otherwise mention that people looked different. Used to be a big deal people were different like that but civil rights had come a long way since his mother had been little and it had a real issue. Gabriel had had a few of them in his classes growing up, thought nothing of it. Some people were just like that, same as Gabriel having dark skin. Wasn’t anything anyone could do about it. He treated them just like anyone else since they were like anyone else.

Still, it was sometimes a bit hard to take a guy with cat ears seriously.

He’d been selected for the same program as Gabriel. Only animi of the bunch. Gabriel hadn’t been the only one confused about it but they were all soldiers and knew when to keep their mouths shut about stuff. Maybe it was the injections but for the first time, Gabriel actually noticed an animi. The program chief said the injections heightened awareness and every other sense as well as physical ability. So the ear twitching was really noticeable to him.

Gabriel usually missed half of the training he was in with Morrison because his damn ears moved and they were impossible to miss and impossible not to get distracted by. It really bothered him since he’d always been told to ignore them, that just because people looked different didn’t mean they deserved to be stared at.

He honestly thought he was keeping it together and not being noticed. But Morrison was getting the same juice as him so he was an idiot to think he wouldn’t notice Gabriel staring at him.

They were in mess together, as usual. Gabriel liked to sleep, he always came in last, Morrison ate slowly so was usually around when Gabriel shambled into mess looking for coffee. They’d sit at different tables to give each other privacy some since they had to spend the rest of the day together, training, working with their unit. Today was no different. Gabriel got his high-calorie breakfast and coffee- with a more than an objectively wise amount of sweetened condensed milk- and sat at his table to wake up. He sat hunched in his uniform, still bleary eyed. Program chief said once the full round of injections was over that the high level of drowsiness they had after sleeping would ebb. Others who’d gone through the program, the few who’d made it all the way through without suffering severe allergic-like reactions to the juice, had similar conditions that dissipated. It was worse for Gabriel because he was just not a morning person by nature. Had always been a night owl and the drowsiness from the injections did _not_ help in that respect.

He was nursing his coffee when someone sat across from him. Oh god, what now? Couldn’t he just wake up in peace? It better not have been Finnegan or he was going to shove his entire size thirteen boot up that guy’s ass. He looked up tiredly and was surprised that Morrison was sitting across from him, bright eyed and bushy tailed, his ears sticking as straight up as they could go. Gabriel hated him for both being a morning person and not seeming to be affected by the lethargy others were. He groaned and looked into his coffee, taking a sip. “What?” he asked.

“You have a problem, Reyes?” Morrison asked.

“Huh?” That was a surprise. “Only problem I got is you bothering me while I’m eating breakfast.”

“Then knock it off.”

Gabriel had no idea what he was talking about. “What?” he squinted at Morrison incredulously.

“I’m not blind you know.”

“Farm boy, you lost me.”

“Stop staring at me. If you got a problem with the fact I’m an animi then say something.”

Gabriel blinked at him slowly. “I— I don’t have a problem with it.”

“Really?” he was still combative but Gabriel couldn’t really find it in him to be surprised, especially not after what he said next. “Staring is usually a preemptive to hostility. At least in my experience. So if you got beef, say something so we can get it out of the way.” As he talked his ears quivered and Gabriel’s eyes were unintentionally drawn up to them for a second.

“I don’t care that you’re an animi,” Gabriel said.

“Then stop with the staring. Otherwise, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

Gabriel couldn’t help it. He snorted a laugh into his coffee. He honestly he didn’t spend a lot of time interacting with Morrison so didn’t expect him to be a scrappy guy. He radiated farm boy from middle America who’d joined UN’s military force on idealism. A real good old boy. He didn’t think Morrison would actually threaten to fight him. Most people were too intimidated by Gabriel’s face. Everyone always said he looked mean. “Your ears,” he motioned to them and they flicked back, annoyed. “They’re distracting.”

“Then figure it out.”

Gabriel was putting it to the fact that he still wasn’t awake and being harassed by a guy with cat ears for the dumb shit that came out his mouth next. “Can I touch them?”

There was a solid five seconds of silence and Gabriel thought this was it, he was about to get his ass kicked by some rural ass white farm boy. He was never going to live down getting his ass kicked by a picture perfect hick farm hand. Morrison’s ears were sticking straight upright again, quivering. When they did that he could really see how soft they looked. “What?” he asked.

Well. Morrison hadn’t flipped his breakfast tray into his face and he didn’t sound mad. He just sounded really confused and bewildered. So this wasn’t a total disaster. “What, no one ever ask dumb questions like that to you before?” Gabriel said, shrugging it off like he hadn’t just said something ridiculous. He knew it was inappropriate. It was like asking to touch a black person’s hair because it had a different texture than you were used to. You just didn’t touch an animi’s ears or tail. At least not without permission.

“No,” Morrison said. “Usually they don’t ask. They just do it.”

“Well that’s rude,” Gabriel said. But now that he’d said it he really did want to touch them. Did they feel like actual cat ears or like human hair or like hairy people ears? They sat in awkward silence for a few more seconds. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Can I?”

Morrison was so taken aback and surprised he obviously didn’t know what to say. “Will you stop staring at them if I say yes?”

“Might help,” Gabriel said and took another sip of his coffee.

Morrison wrinkled his nose at him. “Fine.”

Gabriel’s brows went up a little. He actually hadn’t expected Morrison to say yes. Gabriel sure as shit wouldn’t have. He’d have told himself to fuck off, no he wasn’t touching his ears. Morrison was nicer than him. He leaned over the table and Gabriel lifted a hand up, putting his coffee down. They felt like normal cat ears and were soft. Morrison’s hair was soft too which he couldn’t help but touch while touching his ears. He heard a weird droning noise for a few seconds before Morrison sat back. He cleared his throat and said, “Happy now?”

“I guess,” Gabriel said, still looking at his ears.

“Stop it,” Morrison growled.

“Sorry, sorry,” Gabriel looked down at his face. “Juice makes you fixate on things.”

“Then fixate on something else.” Gabriel shrugged a little. “Don’t be late for morning regime,” and with that Morrison got up and left the mess.

Gabriel watched him go then looked down at the hand he’d touched Jack’s ears with. He rubbed his fingers together. Well, that didn’t work out the way he’d hoped. Now he just wanted to touch them again. That was pretty annoying.

—

If nothing else the initial contact had satisfied Gabriel’s curiosity. At least for a little while. Took him a week before he was staring again. He knew he wasn’t the only one staring now too. The others were just as bad at hiding the fact as Gabriel was. Heightened attention to detail and distraction by small movements always came after a round of injections and for Morrison, it also led him to having twitchy ears. Twitchy ears around a group of people who were easily distracted by small movements was a bad mixture. At least with the last round of injections, three people had dropped out. One developed a heart condition and the other two finally experienced allergic reactions to the juice. So three fewer people staring at Morrison but that still left six people to catch a twitch and look.

It was pretty annoying for all parties involved from Morrison to the others in their squad to their drill sergeants who had to deal with a bunch of ADHD super soldiers distracted when their animi comrade did anything even when he was just sitting doing nothing. Gabriel didn’t even wanna look. Not like they changed and not like it was a big deal. They just _moved_.

Eventually, he had enough and during one of their lectures on tactics, he knew he had to do something or go crazy. It came to him when he realized he’d missed half the lecture because he was sitting behind and a bit to the left of Morrison who was taking notes like the good boy scout he was. His ears were twitching back and forth to listen to the instructor who was going over something. Gabriel couldn’t have paid attention if he’d wanted to. That was when he half stood up and took his hat off. “What—!” Morrison cried when Gabriel pulled it over his head effectively covering his ears. It made his head sort of lumpy.

“Finally!”

“Reyes, what the fuck?” Morrison turned and gave him a look.

“I wanted to listen to the lecture.”

“Not my fault you can’t focus.”

“Not for nothing Morrison but fuck you. Thanks, Reyes,” one of their other comrades said.

“Who thought it was a good idea to let an animi in the program anyway? They should have known it’d be distracting-

“Shut up,” Gabriel glared at who had said that. “They didn’t know and couldn’t know.”

“It’s a good solution,” someone else said.

“Except I can’t hear shit,” Morrison said.

“Well you wanna hear perfect or keep getting stared at?” they asked Morrison.

Morrison just made an annoyed noise, got up and went and sat in the back of the little classroom. “Alright then. You whiny babies quite done?” their instructor asked them.

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.

“Good. Now did anyone _other_ than Morrison pay attention?” No one answered. “Great. Wonderful. Then let’s go over this again, huh?”

—

After that tactics instruction and Gabriel got his hat back Morrison started wearing a hat more, or a uniform regulation hood. It didn’t hide the fact that he had cat ears but it helped with the whole getting distracted by them. They were still very obvious but since Gabriel, or anyone else, couldn’t see them move as easily they didn’t get distracted by them anymore. It led to a lot more focus from everyone even if Gabriel did think Morrison looked weird wearing a hat all the time. He didn’t have the face for a hat even a little. He wore his hat even more often than Gabriel did too and Gabriel took his off only when he absolutely had to or when it was rude. Morrison, on the other hand, was allowed to keep his on even in front of COs or the program chief and Gabriel was a little jealous about that.

After a few more weeks Gabriel sort of forgot Morrison even had cat ears. Like he knew, in his head, that Morrison was an animi but he’d just accepted Morrison as just a guy who wore a hat because he wore a hat, like how Gabriel always wore a hat. The ADHD part of injections had mostly passed by then and they only had one more round of them left. There were only three of them remaining in the program now. Gabriel, Morrison, and fucking Finnegan who Gabriel still didn’t like because he was a bastard. Everyone else had developed some sort of condition on account of the juice.

He was glad the program was almost over. It had taken three months but finally, they’d be allowed to go do what they’d joined the program for in the first place. Just because they’d been in this little bubble didn’t mean the Omnic Crisis wasn’t happening. But you couldn’t rush the injections. Doing so led to even more and worse conditions by those who took them. Once they were over they’d be put back into service to act as actual threats to the omnic militarization.

He caught Morrison returning to his room from the shower and was actually surprised. He’d forgotten what Morrison looked like without the hat on. He was delicately touching one of his ears, wincing as he did. He didn’t see Gabriel at first, then he did. Kinda hard when their rooms were almost right next to each other. “Uh…

“You okay, Morrison?” Gabriel asked him.

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

Gabriel’s eyes flicked up to his ears then back down. Morrison was still touching it in the same way someone would when you had an ear ache. “You sure?”

“I’m fine,” he said again.

“You got nothing to prove to me, Morrison,” he said. “You tell the doc your ears hurt?”

Morrison’s eyes narrowed. “They don’t. Mind your own business,” he said.

“You don’t have to be so catty-

Bad choice of words. _Real_ bad choice of words. Morrison’s ears flicked back the same way a cat’s did when you pissed them off. “I’m just going to pretend you didn’t say that, Reyes.”

“That didn’t come out right,” Gabriel admitted. “Just… you don’t have to act all tough and combative. We’re gonna be working together a lot more. So we should get along right? You said if I have a problem I should say something. I do have a problem. With your shitty attitude to everyone. I’m just concerned that you’re alright. Whole deal they harp on us day in day out, if one of us isn’t a hundred, none of us are.”

Morrison deflated a little. Well, that was a first. The guy always acted like he was ready to fight. “You’re right,” he said. “They’re pressed down all day,” he gently rubbed his other ear. “It starts to ache after a while.”

“Why don’t you just take the hat off then?”

“I didn’t want to keep being a bother.”

Gabriel stared at him. “You realize… we stopped losing our focus like five weeks ago, right? You’ve been wearing a hat and hurting yourself for seven weeks now?”

“Not like everyone didn’t act like it was the biggest relief when I covered them up or anything.”

Gabriel frowned a little. “Should I tell the doc?”

“No. They just… just need some attention,” and when he said that he flushed realizing he’d said something that could be taken the wrong way.

To Gabriel that was a big neon sign saying ‘they need to be touched a bunch’. His usually excellent brain to mouth filter failed him a second time concerning Morrison’s ears- this time he had no excuse other than he was an idiot- “Want some help?”

“Uhh… no,” he gave Gabriel a weird look.

“Right. Well if you change your mind,” and with that Gabriel decided he should leave before he said something else stupid. He headed for the mess to get some coffee. It was only after he was at the mess that he realized he’d had that entire conversation with Morrison while he was half naked, wearing only a towel around his waist. Either Gabriel was less gay than he thought he was, or Morrison’s ears were more distracting than a half naked guy standing literally right in front of him.

When he went back to his own room Morrison opened his door and poked his head out. “Hey, Reyes,” he said. Gabriel had his coffee now and Morrison was wearing clothes, his ears upright like he could see Gabriel better with his ears pointed right at him. He’d forgotten Morrison’s ears did that. It was kinda cute.

“Yeah?”

Morrison hesitated a moment, then, “I erm— changed my mind.”

That was an interesting change of pace. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Strictly speaking fraternizing with squad mates was against the rules. They were highly discouraged from even going into each other’s rooms. Program chief didn’t know what would happen to people who’d had injections accidentally had kids so everyone was kept separate. Brought on more by those the rule restricted even same sex private time was frowned upon. Though it was because if some of them had to suffer they _all_ had to suffer. So Gabriel looked up and down the hallway to make sure no one was around. Finnegan was nowhere in sight and neither was anyone else.

Morrison opened the door for him some and then closed it firmly behind them. Gabriel was glad he still had his cup of coffee in his hand because he didn’t know what he was supposed to do and it was a good excuse to just hold something. Morrison ran his hand through his blonde hair awkwardly and winced when he ran it over his ears. “So— what exactly do you want me to do?” Gabriel asked. “I’ve never helped an animi with… ear soreness. I didn’t even know that was a thing.” Gabriel couldn’t even imagine it. His ears never got sore. How did someone’s ears get sore?

“It isn’t like it happens often. Just when they’re pressed down for a while. Usually isn’t that bad.”

“But they’ve been pressed down for seven weeks,” Gabriel supplied for him.

“Basically,” he said.

“Well. How can I help?”

Turned out it was a lot like any other sort of pulled and strained muscle. You needed to massage it. And just like trying to work out a kink in your own shoulder it was difficult to do for yourself. Which was how Gabriel found himself sitting behind Morrison in a chair basically giving him a head massage. The entire thing was _pretty_ gay. He got to satisfy his curiosity about touching Morrison’s ears though so Gabriel considered it a bonus. Despite the fact that Morrison said that it made his ears feel better he was super tense about the entire thing like he expected Gabriel to pull on his ears or twist them or in some other ways abuse them. It made him sad that Morrison thought so little of other people touching his ears but it probably came from a place of trusting someone to do this and they did hurt them. It just made Gabriel be super gentle with them and he wished Morrison trusted him a little more.

“You should relax, Morrison or you’re going to turn your hair white.” He smirked a little when his ears swiveled towards him at that. “You think I’d actually fuck with you? I’ve seen you in training. No thanks, I’m not that stupid.”

Morrison sighed, “Stupid is not a word I’d use to describe you, Reyes. And you— don’t need to be so professional. Jack’s fine.”

“So’s Gabriel,” he said.

“Right… Gabriel.” Gabriel liked the way Morrison- no _Jack_ said his name. He still had a bit of a midwest accent on him that sounded nice around the vowels.

Gabriel rubbed against where Jack’s ear met the rest of his head, around the stiff or sore little muscles and tendons. Then he did a more of an all overhead rub, mostly to get Jack’s hair out of the way so he could see what he was doing because saw what you wanted but animi had thick hair. It took him a few seconds to understand what he was hearing after that and he looked down at the top of Jack’s head in surprise. Jack was _purring_. Gabriel knew, logically, that he knew animi purred but he’d never actually been close to one before let alone close enough to hear one purr. It totally killed Jack’s hard-ass image he projected.

A cruel little part of Gabriel wondered how far he could push it before Jack complained. He started with just a little bit of not rubbing Jack’s ears and instead rubbed other parts of his head. Jack didn’t say anything. So he did a bit more and a bit more until he really wasn’t helping soothe Jack’s hat squashed ears but was just playing with his hair and giving him ear scritches. He smiled as he did because Jack apparently liked ear scritches and having his hair played with because he was purring _very_ loudly and even moved his head a little now and then so Gabriel would move his fingers to another part of his head he wanted attention given to. It also made Gabriel realize Jack hadn’t been tense because he thought Gabriel would pull or twist his ears but he’d been forcing himself _not_ to purr because he was a lot more relaxed than he had been.

When Gabriel stopped Jack realized what he’d been doing and immediately turned and looked at him with a guilty look on his face. “Uh…

Gabriel just had a sort of satisfied smirk on his lips. “Kitty likes getting pet, huh?”

“Reyes,” Jack started with a growl but it didn’t come out as threatening as it could have because Gabriel just rubbed one of his ears. He tried and did glare at Gabriel for a few seconds before losing concentration and his eyes lidded a little. He didn’t purr again.

“Should I stop?” Gabriel asked. Jack opened his eyes and shook his head. “What else does the kitty like, hmm?” Gabriel sort of teased him but not to be mean. He slid off the chair so he could use both hands and be at the same eye level as Jack. He stopped a moment when Jack turned around all the way and they were facing each other now. Jack’s hair was really soft and had dried almost completely since his shower and Gabriel took the chance to play with it and Jack started purring, softly, again. “Feel good?”

“Uh-huh,” Jack murmured, eyes mostly closed happily at the attention. He moved his head some to get Gabriel to rub and ruffle other parts of his hair and it was kinda cute, especially with how relaxed his ears were and now almost droopy. He only thought they looked droopy because Jack’s ears were always high key attentive and as straight upright as he could get them. At least before he started wearing a hat.

Gabriel wondered if Jack liked being touched other places. He wasn’t blind after all. Jack was good looking and the whole very affectionate purring thing was endearing if nothing else. Usually, he wasn’t into blonde haired, blue eyed, white guys but rules were meant to be broken. He wasn’t adverse to letting Gabriel touch him in such an affectionate way and he’d never met a straight guy this okay with this kind of intimacy even if it wasn’t sexual in any way because straight guys were ridiculous. So he let his hand go a little lower to the back of Jack’s neck, just to see how he’d react. No reaction. That wasn’t exactly a bad thing. He tried a hand on the side of his neck and against his jaw. If anything Jack purred louder and his eyes opened into slivers but not a squint or a glare.

Gabriel chuckled, “Kitty’s got good tastes then,” he said.

“You don’t sound surprised,” Jack said and his voice sounded funny from talking around his happy purring.

“Surprised everyone finds me irresistible? Absolutely not.”

“So humble too.”

“I will stop petting you,” and he couldn’t believe he delivered that threat with a straight face. Jack just rolled his eyes at him. They were both aware it was a bad threat. “Yeah okay, that sounded real bad.”

“Horrible,” Jack said. They were quiet for a little bit, Gabriel still just petting his hair and scratching his ears and now and then touching other parts of his face. Then his ears started twitching up and down and Jack opened his eyes again. It was weird petting a grown man’s head when they were looking at you even if they had cat ears. His mouth opened then closed. Gabriel rose a brow at him and he was very glad his skin was dark enough to sort of hide his flush when Jack asked, “Do you, uh… wanna pet me in other places?” For himself, Jack’s face turned red and his ears went out nervously.

“Uh-huh,” was all Gabriel said, feeling his face warm at the invitation and leaned over to him. Jack’s ears went straight up when Gabriel put his hand up under his shirt, not quite twitching, more like just vibrating. Jack’s skin was soft but his body was firm and muscled partially from conditioning and partially from the super soldier injections. Gabriel really just wanted to pet his hair again but he also wanted to touch other places too. He pushed Jack some so he had to lean back on one hand and pushed his hand up his chest under his shirt. His skin was warm and got goosebumps where Gabriel touched. “This alright?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Jack said, looking down at Gabriel’s hand up his shirt. He was still purring like a little motor boat so that was a good sign.

Jack leaned back on both hands when Gabriel moved more to kneel between his legs while he kept touching him. Across the chest, down his flank, and along his back. He stopped in a bit of surprise when he found Jack had a tail. “What— You still have one?” Usually, parents of animi got it docked since it was useless for anything, too small and thin to be even helpful for balancing. That and it was more likely to get pulled by people or it caught on things from little kids being unable to control it properly so to keep the risk of harm down they just had it removed when they were little.

“Oh… yeah, I do,” Jack said, weirdly shy about it. “That weird?”

“It’s soft. Damn near only thing about you that is,” Gabriel said and made Jack snort in amusement. He ran his hand down it and it curled in his fingers, the tip twitching back and forth. Then he had a thought and wanted to test it out. If Jack still had a tail did he act like cats when you scratched their tail? He certainly acted all relaxed when you scratched his ears like one. He had to try it out and was not disappointed when Jack’s back arched and was very pleased when he moved against Gabriel with a little whine. That was promising. He wondered what else he could do to make Jack make other noises. So far he’d gotten a purr and a whine.

“This alright?” Gabriel asked him and kissed him, just a little. Jack’s response was to kiss him again and lean forward, grabbing the back of Gabriel’s neck. Jack was a good kisser. A _really_ good kisser. It made Gabriel pull him closer, yanking his legs up and over Gabriel’s thighs so he couldn’t pull away. Jack didn’t mind and ran his hand up the back of Gabriel’s scalp under his beanie through his hair.

“Found it,” Jack muttered when they stopped to breathe a moment.

“Found what?”

“Found your soft spot.” As he said that he ran his fingers through Gabriel’s curls.

“That was really gay,” Gabriel said and that made them both laugh. 

Gabriel kissed him again and pushed him down onto the floor so Jack could wrap his arms around his shoulders. Gabriel hiked up Jack’s shirt some more so he could keep touching him and it didn’t take long for it just to get yanked off. Gabriel’s followed quickly after and he’d worry about it finding it later. Honestly, the only thing he was worried about right now was if he’d get Jack out of those pants or if they wouldn’t even make it that far from sheer impatience.

Jack must have been thinking the same thing as him as he unwound his arms from Gabriel’s neck and slid his hands down his chest to where Gabriel still had Jack’s legs hooked over his thighs. Gabriel stopped kissing him and looked down to see what he was doing. It was to unbutton Gabriel’s pants and then his own. Then he did the next best thing he'd done since he let Gabriel touch his ears and put one hand down inside the front of Gabriel’s pants. He groaned a little.

“Hair’s about be the only soft thing about me,” Gabriel said.

Jack actually stopped and looked at him. He could not believe Gabriel had just said that. “I should really push you off right now. Cause that was _terrible_.”

“Probably, but you won't,” he smirked and fingered one of Jack’s ears gently. Jack started purring almost immediately at the attention. Gabriel kissed against his mouth and then down along his jaw, moving his hips into Jack's hand, which was still down his pants.

“Doesn't mean I shouldn't,” Jack grumbled.

“Only thing that should be going off right now is-

“I swear to god Reyes,” Jack said and sounded madder at himself for being amused than he actually was at Gabriel for his increasingly bad dick jokes. “It could end really bad for you if you keep it up,” he glanced down as if to indicate that he'd do something to Gabriel’s dick if he kept being an idiot.

“That's just foreplay, kitty,” Gabriel said down against his ear and Jack’s face heated up. Of course, Gabriel would say anything to get the last word in. Even something ridiculous.

“You're so weird,” Jack grumbled but it wasn't a complaint.

“Part of the charm.”

“That's definitely a word for it. You should really work on the charming part.”

“I mean I charmed your pants open, I think I'm doing pretty good for myself,” Gabriel smirked when Jack flushed again. He reached down to return the favor Jack was already doing and any other sarcastic remark was swallowed up by Jack's groan. Gabriel always got the last word.

Gabriel pressed his mouth against the side of Jack's neck and Jack put his face practically into his throat, his mouth hot and insistent on Gabriel's skin. Collared shirt tomorrow then because Jack was leaving marks on his skin in the shape of his mouth, some with even fine little impressions of his teeth. It just made Gabriel grind up and into Jack's hand and against him.

He pressed his face against Jack's neck, leaving his own mouth shaped marks there. Jack used both hands to press up the defined planes of Gabriel's back his nails digging into his shoulder a little when Gabriel ground down against him. Then they went down, the pads of his fingers leaving pale pressure lines down his spine and he grabbed Gabriel's ass firmly. Jack pulled him forward to grind against him again and Gabriel was happy to comply. Then Jack grabbed the back of his pants by the belt loops and pulled them down around his hips, pants and boxers and all.

“Now we're getting somewhere,” Gabriel rumbled into his ear.

Gabriel pushed himself up a little so Jack could tug his own pants down as well. There was no way Gabriel was peeling off him enough to get either of them all the way off. Not like what they were working with wasn't perfectly serviceable as it was.

“So does the kitty wanna play or wanna be played with first, hmm?”

“Keep that up and I might have to get you a muzzle cause you’re acting like a dog.” He pulled on Gabriel’s beard a little less than gently, ears pressed out in annoyance. “Don’t call me that, dog boy.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Gabriel said but he saw the look in Jack’s eyes. He’d make Gabriel regret it if he kept calling him ‘kitty’. He put that information away for later when he could appreciate it.

“You started it. I think you should have to finish it,” Jack said, releasing his beard and smoothing it down some.

“ _I_ started it? You invited me in here-

“You literally asked to touch my ears while I was half naked.”

Gabriel grimaced. “Yeah. Okay. Good point,” he admitted. Jack just smirked and laid back comfortably, his ears wiggling with interest and pillowed his head with one of his arms, the other he used to toy with Gabriel’s beard which was super distracting. He ended up leaning down and kissing Jack firmly, pushing his hips against him as he did.

Gabriel slipped his hand down between them and wrapped his fingers around Jack’s cock and that made him groan into Gabriel’s mouth. He didn’t know why he was surprised but Jack’s responsiveness was a nice surprise. Mainly that he just started purring immediately even if kissing someone who was purring felt super weird since it caused Jack’s entire mouth to vibrate a little. He also wasn’t nearly so smug when Gabriel started jerking him off and wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s neck, his hips moving up against Gabriel’s hand. 

Gabriel leaned down to nuzzle into Jack’s hair and made his ears twist about when he lipped at the delicate skin. It also made Jack purr louder and his legs pulled Gabriel’s hips closer to him needily. “Good kitty,” Gabriel said into his ear because he was an asshole.

_Super_ bad idea. Jack stopped purring at once and immediately dug his surprisingly sharp nails, not claws because despite what people wanted you to believe animi didn’t have claws, into his back. Gabriel winced at the pain. “Bad. Dog,” Jack said through clenched teeth. “Don’t make me muzzle you.”

“Careful there, I might like it,” Gabriel said like he wasn’t having to deal with Jack still painfully digging into his back. He just couldn’t help himself. He always needed to get in the last word on things even if they weren’t true. Jack didn’t know him well enough to know Gabriel just said shit to act in control and because of that was now all flustered. “Almost as much as I like our new recruit here.”

“New recruit—“ Jack got it when Gabriel jerked him off again. His hands relaxed on his shoulders so he could press his hand against his face. “I’d rather masturbate alone at this point if you’re gonna keep up with the bad jokes, Gabriel.”

“No you don’t,” Gabriel said, “you like me doing it.”

“Against my better judgment,” Jack grumbled but Gabriel took that as a win. He also shut up for a little bit so Jack didn’t keep questioning why he was letting a weirdo like Gabriel touch his dick.

He did eventually get Jack to start purring again when he nuzzled against his hair and ears though the sound started and stopped in time with his little whines and groans. His bad jokes were forgiven because he was making Jack feel good and that seemed pretty fair but the bastard was also being stubborn and not just finishing. Meanwhile, Gabriel, doing all the damn work, had blue balls the size of Texas from not getting enough attention from Jack. Well if he was doing the work he might as well work for himself too right?

Probably the best idea he’d had all night was to press his cock against Jack’s and jerk them both off at the same time. Felt good and Jack pressed his hips up against him, wanting more like that. This time when he dug his fingers into Gabriel’s back it was sans nails so just left his back with pale finger pressure marks but Gabriel barely noticed because Jack moaned so loudly he actually stopped. He looked up at the door _just_ to make sure someone, say, Finnegan, wasn’t going to interrupt them.

“Why’d you stop?” Jack complained.

“Because you moan like a whore and we don’t need the entire base knowing it,” Gabriel eyed the door distrustfully. 

He looked down at Jack and his face and all the way down his neck and throat was bright red. Jack put a hand up to his mouth, “I’ll be quieter,” he said softly.

“Good kitty-

“That is _never_ going to be endearing, dog boy,” Jack scowled at him.

Gabriel just rolled his eyes a little and got Jack to forgive him somewhat by going back to what they were doing. This time Jack covered his mouth so people down the hall couldn’t hear him getting it on with someone in his room like he really wasn’t supposed to. This was a serious military program. No time for a bedroom play date. Except when it was.

With the added sensation of Gabriel’s cock grinding on him he didn’t have to work much harder to finish getting Jack off. It was cute to watch him when he did finally orgasm. His ears went straight up for a second before relaxing downward and he got a really dopey look on his face that was lazy and smiley. His tail also pressed against Gabriel’s thigh which was different, the tip flicking against him insistently until Jack reached down and put it down flat. Meaning he hadn’t been doing it on purpose so it had been a cute, involuntary, response to what had just happened. He also succeeded in making a mess all over his stomach and chest but didn’t even seem to care. He just looked happy and content with a wide, lazy, smile, lidded eyes, and a soft rumble of a purr in his chest. Gabriel had a minor ‘oh shit’ moment when he realized he thought Jack looked _really_ cute when he smiled like that, which was like never because he was so serious all the time. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Jack relaxed till just now.

“That alright?” Gabriel teased him.

“No,” Jack said childishly and looked up at Gabriel. Maybe he was suddenly having a weird reaction to the injections but Jack’s eyes seemed really blue. Pretty blue. Real pretty. “Awesome.”

“Now who’s got the bad jokes?” Gabriel rose a brow at him.

“Don’t complain, Gabriel,” and Gabriel was reminded he liked the way Jack’s accent sounded on the vowels. Just a little bit of a midwest twang it sounded like he tried really hard to cover up and pretend he didn’t have. Gabriel was going to complain some more because he did not take a challenge sitting down but was distracted when Jack started to jerk him off. Oh, right, don’t complain.

Gabriel wanted to say he took it like a champ and gave Jack half as much trouble in getting him off but that didn’t happen. It was all Jack’s fault too cause of the way he’d look down at what he was doing and then back up at Gabriel with those stupid pretty blue eyes of his. Or how Gabriel was barely even touching him and he was still purring contently with that careless smile on his face that just made him look good in a way Gabriel was pretty sure wasn’t allowed to happen. He didn’t last nearly as long as he expected too and Jack wrung everything out of him he could until Gabriel was just trembling holding himself up.

When he was done he was out of breath and really just wanted to lay down for a few minutes. Really just relax and scratch Jack on the ears and touch his soft hair so he’d keep purring. Jack still had his legs firmly over Gabriel’s thighs so he couldn’t really pull away. If Jack was going to be like that he’d have to live with the consequences of his actions. Jack grunted when Gabriel just laid down on top of him. “You’re not light,” Jack grunted.

“Like you can stand to let me go,” Gabriel grumbled because fuck Jack. He’d done this himself.

“Oh. Heh,” Jack relaxed his legs and with a huff Gabriel rolled off him and onto his back. As he did Jack moved his tail out of the way so Gabriel didn’t land on it.

They laid next to each other, both of them with their pants half way down their thighs, and just said nothing for a bit. Gabriel glanced over at Jack after a bit and he was doing the same thing he was, dozing. Then he sat up. “I need to go take another damn shower,” he huffed and Gabriel didn’t know why he was standing. Jack pulled his pants up and found a rag to wipe his stomach and chest off since it was pretty well covered in spunk.

“Oh, poor you,” Gabriel groaned and stretched. He also yanked his pants up so his ass wasn’t cold on the floor. 

He looked up at Jack who tossed him the rag. “Good idea laying on top of me,” Jack said sarcastically.

“Not a shining moment of brilliance, I admit. But then I can’t be perfect _all_ the time,” Gabriel grinned at him and wiped off his chest some. Then, “We should do that again sometime.”

Jack flushed and his ears went up. “Ah… sure,” he said awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m uh— gonna head for the showers.”

“Good idea. Me too,” Gabriel said and picked himself up off the floor. He found his shirt and his beanie and put on the shirt, stuffing the beanie into his back pocket. “Unless you don’t want me checking out the goods,” he smirked.

That made Jack flustered. “This isn’t even the first time you’ve seen my dick, _Reyes_ ,” he said it specifically. The showers they used were gang style. You got over it pretty quick.

“Oh so now I’m allowed to look at it then, Morrison?” That just made him more flustered. He opened his mouth to say something but Gabriel didn’t really care what it was. He just kissed Jack and was not disappointed with the outcome, which was to be kissing Jack. “Or maybe just skip the shower?” he asked, so close his facial hair brushed Jack’s face. “Wouldn’t be the worst thing you’ve been covered in.” Jack’s ears went straight upright at that, his face horribly red. Of course Gabriel did mean the bootcamp training Jack obviously went through where he’d probably crawled through all sorts of gross mud because boot drill sergeants were real assholes. But if Jack wanted to take it somewhere else that was entirely his own issue.

Jack licked his lips but didn’t take the hint. He just stepped back. Gabriel was satisfied that before he said anything he had to clear his throat. It still cracked a little which just made his ears twitch horribly. “I'm going. Don't let Finnegan catch you leaving,” and that was it. Jack ducked out before Gabriel could say anything and Gabriel was alone in his room.

He did a little courtesy snooping before leaving but there wasn't much to see. The room was temporary so there wasn't any reason to bring anything you couldn't fit in your bag. It was still disappointing Jack didn't have anything personal in his room. At least Gabriel wasn't that pathetic. Snooping done and having found nothing he made to leave. He was half out the door when he remembered his coffee and leaned back in to grab the cold mug from the table and went to his room to call his mother like he'd been planning to until whatever the fuck that had been happened. Maybe he'd tell her about the guy he'd met with the pretty blue eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Christ these two act like shitty 13-year-olds with their damn bullshit sarcasm. I’m done
> 
> Just putting out there that comments directly influence my desire to post more of a story. So if you like it and want more, say somethin'. They also make me happy and make my little author heart go doki doki =u= b


	2. Sniper on Loan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> congrats guys you convinced me to keep on with this stupid pwp AU which I haven’t done since I was like 18 and I’m a jaded old fandom lady at this point who doesn’t write porn anymore.
> 
> I also have been posting spoilery excerpts from future chapters on my tumblr while I write more stuff as well as general complaining about this stupidity if you’d like to see the bullshit these two are up to still. I’m Xazz over there too.
> 
> disclaimer: I still have no idea what I’m doing. The ‘plot’ part of this pwp is so fucking thin I can basically see through it. It’s all a grand ruse to write romance and pining lols
> 
> Also, there’s spanish in this, see notes at bottom.

When the communicator started beeping Gabriel answered it without even really looking at it. He was distracted by what was going on around him. Mainly that he’d found Jack in one of the base’s rec rooms where he was playing pool with some of the boots. Gabriel wasn’t a pool player, it was a real white guy’s sport, but he did appreciate Jack leaning over the table to shoot, his ears moving like they helped him triangulate the cue ball’s directory, so he’d stayed and watched. He tapped the communicator to answer it and put it to his ear. “Hello, Reyes speaking,” he said, professionally, keeping his voice down.

“¿Reyes? ¿Es esa forma de hablar a tu madre?” Rosa asked him sternly.

“Oh, mamá. Lo siento, no me fijé que eras tú,” he looked away from the pool game.

“¿Qué tal le va mi pequeño?”

“I’m fine.”

“¿Enserio?”

“Yes, mamá, enserio,” he sighed.

“Demasiado ocupado para llamar a tu madre supongo. ¿Me equivoco?”

He thought about lying because he was a grown ass man. He didn’t have to call his mother all the time if he didn’t want to. He also knew better than to lie to his mama. “He estado trabajando,” he said. It wasn’t a lie but wasn’t the whole truth. “Además estoy en Europa, sueles estar dormida cuando tengo tiempo para llamarte.”

“¿Me estás llamando vieja?”

“What! No, jamás mamá,” he promised. “Sólo hay una diferencia de diez horas. No quiero molestarte para nada.”

She ‘hmpf’d at him. “Bueno vale. Esta vez te lo dejo pasar Gabriel.”

“How generous of you,” Gabriel said. That made her laugh and he smiled.

“¿Cómo te va todo? Still mooning over that white boy you’ve told me about-

“¡¡Mamá!!” he cried and covered his face with one hand. “I’m not— it’s not—

“Sí si, claro,” she said knowingly.

“No es lo que creés,” he said sternly even if his cheeks were a bit hot. As he did he glanced over at the pool table where Jack and the others were laughing about something. Someone had screwed something by the way they were patting one of the players’ shoulder.

“Si tu lo dices, pequeñín,” she said with the voice of someone who didn’t believe him at all. “Pero, ¿es demasiado pedir que una madre quiera ver a su pequeñín sentar la cabeza, eh? Tus hermanas ya lo han hecho.”

“Mamá,” he groaned, looking away from the group.

“¿Oh no se lo has dicho?”

“Not told him what?” Gabriel had no idea what she was talking about.

“Que te gusta-

“¡No me gusta!” he cried. Rosa laughed.

“You alright over there Gabriel?” Jack called from the pool table, not quite turned towards him but his ears were pointed at him. “Sound like you’re having a heart attack.”

“It’s just my mother,” Gabriel said, putting his hand over the mic.

“Ah, good luck with that,” Jack said and smiled at him in an understanding way. Gabriel was hit by another ‘oh shit’ moment where he had to come to the terms with the fact that Jack looked so fucking good when he smiled. Then Jack turned back to the game but Gabriel was still looking.

“Gabriel, are you still there?” Rosa asked when he didn’t say anything for a little bit.

Gabriel blinked and turned his attention back on the call. “Oh, yeah. I’m still here,” he said. “And I do not-“ he cut off to slouch and drop his voice down even more even though he knew none of the people in the room spoke very good Spanish if any at all, “ _no_ _estoy_ enamorado de él. ¡Apenas le conozco! ¡No caigo por todos los chicos monos que vea! Ya no tengo doce años.” That made Rose laugh a little again. Yes, young Gabriel, once he realized he actually liked boys, had had a different crush almost every single day.

“Y todavía actúas como uno la mayoría de las veces,” she said. He just rolled his eyes and was very glad his mother couldn’t see him do it or she would have hit him with her spoon for rolling his eyes at her.

Thankfully the rest of the call was fairly benign. She told him what his sisters were up to and asked if he was safe, which he asked the same back. His mother still lived in Southern California and there was an omnium in Los Angeles. Of course, she and everyone else had since been evacuated to safer places and rapidly assembled government housing but she was still over there. He did his best not to think about the fact that his mother was probably in more danger of omnics than he was and he was actually the one fighting in the war. As usual, he asked after his father and she just scoffed and said he was alive so apparently God was still performing miracles for the undeserving.

“When the war is over you should come home, Gabriel,” she said as part of their goodbye, the same thing she said every time.

“I will,” he said, not for the first time.

“Y traete a tu novio-

“¡Mamá¡ !No es mi novio!” he cried and Rosa just laughed.

“Lo sé, te quiero Gabriel. Se bueno,” and Gabriel mumbled out some sort of goodbye and hung up. When he did he just groaned and slumped further into the chair and pulled his hat down low.

He did not have a boyfriend. He and Jack just… fooled around sometimes. Helped relieve stress, especially after a long operation or when they had to deal with incompetent soldiers. The latter was really common too since the two of them had been trained to hell and back during the super soldier program and they usually led a, larger than normal, platoon of soldiers together because Command realized they worked exceptionally well together. It was unfair to take it out on their men since they were weaker and not as well trained but there had been more than one occasion where Gabriel had fucked the frustration out of Jack so he didn’t break someone’s neck next time they did something stupid. There was no real rhyme or reason to it though. It just happened sometimes but other than that they were professional, friends even.

More than Gabriel could say for his relationship with Finnegan, who he still hated and hated even more than before because he called Jack the ‘furried boy wonder’ because he sucked and wasn’t as good or respected as Jack despite coming from a military family where you’d think they’d make good military kids. Jack didn’t even appear to hear the shit Finnegan said but if someone repeated what the other commanding officer said Jack was very quick to put them back in their place. Sometimes with sharp words, sometimes during fighting training and exercises where he’d use the excuse to hit them a bit more than professionally advised. In the last few months, everyone had gotten wise to the fact to _not_ ever _ever_ talk about or mention that everyone’s favorite platoon leader was an animi. It just made Finnegan stew all the more and that was honestly the best revenge more than punching him in his shitty Irish face. Not that Gabriel still didn’t want to do that, but he restrained himself.

Someone came over and put their hand on his shoulder. He looked up and positively wilted because it was Jack, a little smile on his face, ears pointed right at him. “You alright over here, Gabriel?” he asked, not faking concern because Jack never faked anything. He was just genuine. Gabriel nodded and hoped he didn’t look meek about it. “You sure? You fight with your mom?”

“Jesus Christ, kitty,” he rolled his eyes. “You think I could have a fight with having a Spanish mother and still be alive right now?”

That made Jack chuckle. “I guess not,” he said. “Wanna join in the next game?” he nodded towards the pool table.

“I’m not really a pool kinda guy.”

“Do you know how to play?”

“Did I not just say I’m not a pool guy?” Gabriel huffed.

“I could show you, if you wanted.”

What the fuck did he say to that? Especially with how friendly he was being it would have been rude to say no. But Gabriel also wasn’t really interested in pool. Still, he’d seen the way Jack had been all bent over that table earlier. Good excuse at a nice close up look, right? “I dunno, I don’t know anything about it,” he said.

“C’mon, I’ll teach you,” Jack squeezed his shoulder. Gabriel mulled it over a bit more before pushing his beanie back and getting out of the chair. He followed Jack over to the pool table. “See, told you I’d get him to come over,” Jack told the others with a good-natured smile of someone who’d just either done something impossible or just won a bet. Apparently, it was a bet because there were a few groans and bills were tossed onto the pool table which Jack collected ceremoniously to be an asshole about it.

The next game Gabriel just watched and when Jack wasn’t playing he’d come stand next to Gabriel and explain what was going on. He had a real head for making people understand things they had no concept about. For Gabriel it was pool. He wasn’t sure how much he absorbed about it but it was less boring to watch than he’d originally thought. After that game the others had to leave, and Gabriel wondered if Jack had done this on purpose. They weren’t alone in the rec room now but everyone else was focused on what they were doing, or the television which was showing reruns of the Simpson. That just left Jack and Gabriel at the pool table.

Jack gave Gabriel a cue and went and set the billiards up again and walked Gabriel through lining up a shot which involved some hands on teaching. Gabriel was not about to complain as Jack stood behind him and put his hands on Gabriel’s hands to guide him through the motions. His quiet instruction made the hair on the back of Gabriel’s neck stand on end from his warm breath on his neck and jaw. Then Jack let him go so he could try to hit the cue ball on his own. Gabriel took an extra few seconds to focus after Jack left his space before making the shot. The balls made a great, satisfying, clattering sound as they dispersed, bouncing off each other and the railing before rolling to a stop.

“Not bad,” Jack said and looked over the table. “Except you put the eight in a shitty spot,” he pointed. The black ball was sitting right in front of a pocket. The pocket was dead now.

“Cut me some slack. I’ve never done this before,” Gabriel fake complained.

“It’s fine,” Jack said and went around the table. Gabriel watched as he leaned down and lined up a shot. He had no idea what he was aiming at, there were no balls in the direct line of the cue ball. Then he struck and there was a clatter as he grazed one ball, knocking it into a pocket, hitting another one into a railing which changed the course of the cue ball so it was headed for the eight. It hit the eight in such a way that the ball bounced off the railing and rolled away from the pocket and the cue followed it at a different angle to smack against another ball that rolled down the table.

“What the fuck?” Gabriel asked. “How did you do that?”

Jack just laughed. “Used to hustle pool back before I joined the military. I got real good at impossible shots.”

“You didn’t even win last game,” Gabriel floundered.

“Yeah. But it isn’t all about winning. Your turn.”

“You sank one-

“Yeah, but we aren’t playing by real rules this time. If we were I’d win, you’d get no turns and that’s no fun.”

“Alright,” Gabriel said slowly. Jack helped him figure out the best next move he could make and again helped him line it up, his hands on Gabriel’s to make sure he had the right angle and posture.

They took turns all throughout but honestly Gabriel was barely paying attention to the game. Every time it was his turn Jack would gently correct something about what he was doing, usually by touching him, and there went at least half of his concentration for trying to figure out this stupid sport. He wasn’t sure if Jack was doing it on purpose or not until almost the very end and that was when Gabriel realized Jack had told him exactly what he’d been doing in the very beginning. He used to hustle pool. He was hustling pool again except more like he was hustling to make Gabriel as flustered as humanly possibly.

Gabriel couldn’t even say he was mad either since he liked it. Liked the guiding touches and gentle explanations and smiles when Gabriel did it right on his own. And then there were Jack’s turns where Gabriel he _knew_ he was overemphasizing what he was doing. Like leaning all the way across the pool table to make a bullshit shot that somehow worked or bending over lower than he needed to to make a more reasonable one.

“I think I like pool,” Gabriel said when they were done.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Al menos cuando puedo jugar contigo, chico gato-

Jack rolled his eyes at him. “Real cute, Reyes,” he said.

“What? I think that’s fair,” Gabriel smirked and leaned on his pool cue. “Though to be fair I like any time I get to play with you.” That made Jack’s ears move up and down a little.

Jack walked around the table to stand near him. “You’re a real smooth talker,” he said.

“I know. So disappointing since I know you like it rough,” Gabriel said, safe in knowing no one was listening to their conversation. It made Jack’s cheeks turn red and he looked away awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “See, I can hustle pool too,” Gabriel teased him.

“You’re a real class act,” Jack said. Gabriel just smirked and it turned into a smile when he got what he didn’t know he wanted until it happened and Jack gave him a soft kiss on the mouth. Wasn’t like it was a secret. Brass didn’t know because they were ignorant but everyone in their platoon and most of the company did because they weren’t blind or stupid. And the brass _wondered_ why they worked so well together. “Wanna play again?” Jack asked him, trying to pretend he wasn’t staring at Gabriel’s mouth.

“Sure,” he said and Jack took a step back to set up the billiard balls again.

—

Being called up to Command without warning was never a good thing in Gabriel’s experience. But he and Jack had gotten notices to show up at a certain time so they had. When not sent out to deal with omnics they had other, base related, tasks. Jack was mostly bureaucratic, even though he hated it, but he looked like a shiny toy soldier so they put him there to keep an eye on intelligence. Gabriel got to do the fun things like oversee test exercises and make sure the drill sergeants weren’t belittling their recruits or foot soldiers too much. Everyone worried when Reyes was prowling, for good reason.

They both showed up at Command around the same time and waited to get called in. “What do you think it’s about?” Jack asked while they waited in chairs that were almost too small for their big frames.

“Maybe we’re finally getting an honest to god promotion,” Gabriel said, not even believing it himself. Not that they didn’t deserve it. Year of being a spear tip and neither of them had gotten a promotion. They were both fairly high ranked as it was but still, it paid to make your more excellent commanders feel appreciated.

“If it is I’ll eat my shoe,” Jack said, not believing it either.

“That a promise?” Gabriel asked.

Jack mulled it over. “Sure. Why not,” and they shook on it.

“Now I _really_ hope it’s a promotion,” Gabriel snickered as they were called in.

The Colonel was seated behind his desk when they entered and someone neither of them recognized was sitting in one of the chairs in front of it. They saluted the Colonel and stood at relaxed attention. “You two are aware of our upcoming strike on the Egyptian omnium,” he said without preamble. They nodded. “As an act of goodwill or what have you the Egyptian military has sent one of their own to assist on our side and lend aid while on the ground to avoid unnecessary stupidity. She’s been assigned to your platoon until further notice.”

Gabriel looked over at the woman. She was young, pretty, with a serious face and a cybernetic eye Gabriel only noticed because of his super injections since it looked so real. “Ana Amari, pleasure,” she said, her Arabic accent lovely and pronounced.

“ _You’re_ Ana Amari?” Jack asked.

“Yes. Why?”

“I… thought you’d be taller,” he admitted awkwardly and she laughed. “I’m Jack Morrison,” and shook her hand firmly.

“Gabriel Reyes,” Gabriel said and hoped his stupidity wasn’t obvious. He had no idea who this woman was, but somehow Jack did. That meant he _should_ know who she was. He’d look her up later when he wasn’t at risk of being seen as an idiot for not knowing.

“I look forward to working with you gentlemen. I’ve heard nothing but good things.”

“Likewise,” Jack said.

The Colonel gave them a short speech about making sure Ana was integrated into their platoon and she would be helpful in the multi-pronged strike to secure the omnium because she knew the lay of the land better than anyone else they knew. By the end of it, Gabriel was very well bored by the entire thing and just wanted him to stop talking so he could get back to work.

The three of them left at the same time and Gabriel half listened to Jack and Ana’s conversation as they walked across the base back toward the barracks. Something about something he didn’t care about and then he heard his name. He looked over. “You weren’t listening at all, were you?” Jack asked him.

“I was,” he lied like the lying liar he was.

“Then what did I just say?” Gabriel just blinked at him uselessly.

“He always like this? My Commander made it sound like he was a top notch leader,” Ana said.

“At least you know who I am,” Gabriel said. “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of you.” Probably shouldn’t have admitted that.

Judging by the look on Jack’s face he was right. Really shouldn’t have admitted that. “Gabriel. Ana is a world renown sniper, one of, if not the best in the entire world. How do you _not_ know who she is?” Gabriel just shrugged.

“Well, entirely your own problem you don’t know who I am then, Reyes.”

“Don’t take it personally. He’s not… really a people person,” Jack apologized on his behalf. That sort of annoyed him.

“So I’ve been told,” she said dismissively. Oh, this lady was gonna piss him off he already knew. “I’ll be in my bunk if you need me. I expect we’ll be running some sort of training until the assault. I do hope my Commander wasn’t overselling you two,” and with that, she pushed her hair over her shoulder and walked off.

“What a bitch,” Gabriel grumbled, hands in the pockets of his jacket.

“Gabriel, you just told a well-decorated woman you didn’t know who she was. That was so rude.”

“She was first,” Gabriel said, knowing he was being childish and petty but didn’t care. Ana had been first. That meant he was right. Except it didn’t and he knew it.

“Because you were being _rude_ ,” Jack gave him a look.

“To be fair I was going to figure out who she was-

“Except you couldn’t keep your big mouth shut. Good going.”

Gabriel scowled at him, “What the fuck’s it matter? She’s a loaner anyway. Not like she’s sticking around.”

“She has more medals than you,” was Jack’s come back. “I think she has every right to be insulted you didn’t know who she was when she has more confirmed kills omnic or otherwise than anyone else on the global offensive.” Gabriel just slouched further and did his best not to scowl. “Read her dossier, shape up and don’t act like such an asshole just because you’re an idiot.” Jack left him there, halfway between anywhere, and Gabriel glared after him. He knew better than to go after him at least. It’d end in nothing but angry words and Gabriel didn’t want that. It still took a lot of self-control to let Jack have the last word, but he did because he didn’t want to ruin whatever the fuck relationship they had. He sulked as he walked off to get back to what he was doing before going to see the Colonel.

—

Gabriel tried, for like half a day, to not like Ana. But she was just too nice of a woman and anytime Gabriel said something to her that was a bit under the cuff Jack would give him this offended look. He still hadn’t decided if he liked her but he definitely didn’t dislike her. She was exceptionally intelligent and knew all sorts of things about all sorts of things from military tactics to being able to read anyone like a book. After his half a day tantrum, as Jack called it, he just got over it. It wasn’t worth it, especially not with how well Jack got along with Ana and there was no use splitting the platoon down loyalty lines. Especially when most of them did know who Ana Amari was so really it was just Gabriel who was the asshole in the situation.

For the most part, Ana kept to the back during field exercises so the platoon could get used to having Ana around and learned her calls and how to react when she gave instruction or battlefield reports. It was good practice for him and Jack too. They didn’t have any recon or snipers in their platoon, they were troopers, for the most part, so having that extra eye that saw more than you was invaluable to their decision making. After training exercises, the three of them would get together and plan and plot on what they’d do next and pour over the map of the Egyptian omnium. Sometimes staying up late into the night going over scenarios and ideas on how to confront the omnics there. When it got late Ana would bring out tea and Gabriel wasn’t sure if it was just that the tea made him tired or if she put something in it but her timing was impeccable to bring out the tea just before they’d separate for bed.

Of the two Gabriel had no illusions that Jack was Ana’s preferred platoon commander. Not that Gabriel exactly blamed her, they hadn’t had the best first few days together. And there was the whole ‘I don’t know who you are’ thing he wasn’t sure she was still a little bitter about. If she was she never showed it. She treated them equally but it was obvious she was closer to Jack. And since she didn’t have regular assigned duties on base as a visitor she often spent time with Jack on his shift duty. That Gabriel didn’t like but also felt like it wasn’t his place to say anything. He and Jack weren’t anything official or exclusive. It was just a matter of convenience a lot of the time.

The mission to the omnium was less than a week away when Gabriel couldn’t take it any longer. He found Ana out at the long range in the sun. She was laid out on a rug staring down the scope of her Kinamura at the targets down range, some of which were a mile or more away. Gabriel stood next to her and he knew she knew he was there but he wouldn’t interrupt her while she lined up a shot. Her cybernetic eye did the work of a spotter which was why she was so efficient and deadly at what she did. He watched her dial her scope in, adjust the lift of the barrel and made micro adjustments to the lateral aim. Only after she’d made sure her shot was true did she pull the trigger. The bullet raced out of the barrel with a crash and a hit the target too far for Gabriel to see with the naked eye.

“I assume you got it,” Gabriel said. He admired her dedication. He didn’t have the patience to snipe. He liked getting in on the ground floor and go off blasting.

“I always do,” she said and sat up. “Can I help you, Gabe?” she asked.

He squatted down next to her. “You’re good at that,” he said, looking down at her rifle.

“A scalpel in the hand of someone other than a doctor is just a knife,” she said. “Takes training.”

Gabriel smiled a little. “Yeah, that sounds about right,” Gabriel nodded. “You think we’re ready for this?”

“Honestly? No. Do I think we’ll do it anyway? Yes. Our enemy are unstoppable, numberless, machines. No attack on an omnium is a good idea. You’ll never be ready enough.”

“Such a pessimist,” he tutted

“Well someone has to be around to counter your _boundless_ optimism,” she said and gave him a playful little push.

“I’m sorry? Did my hair suddenly turn blonde while I wasn’t paying attention?” That made her laugh.

“I mean it could if you _had_ hair,” she teased him and ran her hand through the end of her ponytail. Gabriel just smiled at her. “That all you wanted to ask? If we’re ready?”

Gabriel rubbed his knees self-consciously. He knew he didn’t have any right to question this but he did anyway. Still how to ask it and not sound accusing? He didn’t need another ‘who are you?’ situation on his hands. “You and Jack are good friends. I’m surprised. He really doesn’t have any for how much people like him.”

“Just have to know how to get under his skin,” Ana said and that rubbed him the wrong way. It implied things that upset him. Not that he should be upset. What the fuck did he care if Jack and Ana fucked? Except he did care. A lot.

He was annoyed enough about the entire thing to just say fuck tact. “Do you like him?”

“He’s a good guy-

“I don’t mean like that. He’s my friend. I don’t want him hurt,” he said.

Ana looked at him, then squinted at him like she couldn’t see him. “Gabe… You know I respect you, right?”

“I feel like it’s an every other day occurrence,” he said.

“Heh, yeah, sounds more like it. But I do respect you. Not at first cause you were a jackass, but I do now. Your men look up to you, you’re a good leader, if a bit rash at times, and Jack values your opinion. So I too value your opinion. But I can’t believe you just asked me that. Do you really think so little of me?” Now Gabriel was lost. This was going somewhere he wasn’t even sure where at this point. “Even if I did like Jack, which I don’t, I would never get in your way or try to steal your man. Unless there’s some other misunderstanding?”

“Jack’s my friend,” Gabriel said defensively, practically reflexively. “Nothing more than that. I just wanted to know where you stood with him.”

“Does Jack know that?” Ana asked him. Gabriel didn’t say anything to her. “Fine. Don’t tell me. I don’t care that much about your relationship. Not my business. But I’m not interested in Jack. He’s too… good, ya know? Like my men a little rougher around the edges.” She shrugged. “That all?”

“I think so,” Gabriel said.

“Alright. Glad we cleared that up since you were so worried. He’s got a good friend if you’re that worried about him getting heart broken over little old me,” and then she laid back down. Gabriel wasn’t sure if she believed him or not but he supposed it didn’t matter. He stayed where he was and watched her line up another two shots before getting up and leaving her be.

—

While not entirely intentional Gabriel did end up avoiding Jack the days leading up to the assault on the Egyptian omnium. If they were running drills they did so together but otherwise, Gabriel kept to himself, went about his business and stayed either in his room or with members of his platoon so Jack couldn’t get him alone. He wasn’t quite sure why he was doing this but it probably had something to do with what Ana had said. Gabriel had told Ana Jack was just a friend and she’d asked if Jack knew that. Did Jack talk about Gabriel to her? If he did what did he say? It made Gabriel’s brain go on long walks of thought that ultimately lead nowhere because he wasn’t sure how he felt in the first place about the entire thing and their relationship.

He liked the sex. He _really_ liked the sex. He liked the flirty looks and banter and making Jack blush and scratching his ears. Even if they didn’t have sex sometimes Gabriel just liked finding him and playing with his hair to listen to him purr and see the content look on his face. He hadn’t forgotten about Jack ‘teaching him to play pool’ either which really had just been an excuse Jack had used to touch him in public and it not be frowned upon because this was the military and gay, straight or whatever, you kept that shit to yourself.

He was laying on his bunk, half working, half thinking about what the fuck was up with him and Jack when there was a knock on the door. He wasn’t expecting anyone. “Yeah? Who is it?” he called, not getting up.

Jack stuck his head in, ears not so perky as usual. “Hey, he said, “can I uh come in?”

Gabriel sat up, “Yeah, sure. What’s up?”

Jack closed the door behind him and came over to him. “Ana asked me today why you’ve been acting so weird.”

“Ana did?”

“Yeah. And I can’t say she isn’t wrong. She asked why it looks like you’re avoiding me,” his brows were furrowed over his blue eyes, his ears pressed out in concern. “I said I didn’t think you were but she said it sure looked like and I couldn’t tell her she was wrong. Everything alright? If one of us isn’t a hundred, none of us are. So what’s the matter?”

“Nothing’s the matter,” Gabriel scoffed.

“You sure?”

“ _Gatito_ , if there was something wrong, I’d tell you. That’s what friends do.” Jack’s ears perked up a little when Gabriel called him _gatito_. He wasn’t _quite_ sure what it meant but he did know Gabriel only called him that in private, usually during a time Gabriel played with his hair so it was probably a good thing. Gabriel didn’t have the guts to tell him it basically meant ‘pretty kitty’. Especially not because Jack would probably punch the shit out of him and juice or not if a super soldier decked you it hurt like a bitch.

“Alright. I was just worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” Gabriel huffed. Then just to see what would happen he said, “We’re fine.”

He wasn’t expecting Jack to take his face in both hands and lean down to kiss him but he did appreciate it. He appreciated it a lot and kissed him back. Had Jack been worried about that too? Like he could read Gabriel’s mind he said, “Good. I thought you were mad at me or something.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been mad at you _gatito_ ,” Gabriel said. “Except that time you told me to fuck off cause I worried about you keeping your ears squished under those ugly hats.” As he said that he reached up and touched one of them.

“Good,” Jack said and kissed him again, deeper this time and took a knee on Gabriel’s bed between his legs. His fingers went up the side of Gabriel’s face and under his hat, running through his buzz cut. Gabriel liked it like this. Just them, no one else. When Jack tried to pull away Gabriel just chased the taste of his mouth and held the back of his neck. He wasn’t done damnit.

But it had to come to a stop at some point, either to end or to continue as more. Jack pulled back again, firmer this time. “Sorry. I uh, have to get back to work. I just came by during my break,” he apologized. “See you at the mess for dinner?”

Gabriel cleared his throat so Jack wouldn’t get an idea how much the kissing had affected him. “Yeah. I’ll be there,” he said. “I would say I don’t want to keep you, but we both know that isn’t true.” Jack blushed just a little, smiling in awkward helplessness.

“Alright. See you then than,” Jack said and kissed him one more time in the softest way imaginable, his ears quivering. Then he left and Gabriel felt all the air rush out of him. He didn’t know why he’d been worried about Ana and Jack. Or why he’d think anything would change. Everything was fine, just the same before Gabriel had put voice to his worry that maybe Jack preferred Ana. He smiled to himself and adjusted his hat so it was properly on his head and left to go find something to do and not wallow in his own mellow drama.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’re a weak monolingual like me (or just don’t know Spanish) you can read the English translation of Gabe’s call with his mother (and him teasing Jack) [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NByyTNP7ssp8SjCcRuDpJ1OdOaUZFu07WAkZGrJ-43s/edit?usp=sharing). 
> 
> Keep making my little writer heart go doki doki and leave a review if you liked it.


	3. Don't Call it a Comeback

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn’t very sexy but it’s really got my fave things in the world in it; badass dudes being badass, and pining.
> 
> And yes, the title is from an LL Cool J song.

The thing about fighting machines was that they didn’t get tired. They knew nothing of pain, exhaustion, fear. They just went forward, covering the ground like locusts. The Egyptian omnium had been fairly quiet for the past few years after it ‘woke’. It had sent out a plague of machines and stripped the land around Giza of anything useful it could use to make more omnics, driving out the humans in the process. Then it had swallowed all the omnics back up and sat there like a bee hive. So long as you didn’t touch it it’d leave you alone. It made everyone nervous. Active omniums weren’t as dangerous somehow. They could see what they were producing and learn to counter them. A sleeping omnium could be making who the fuck knew what.

They’d really kicked the bee hive on this one. The omnics that spilled out of the omnium first were humanoid but dog-like, strange nightmare things on four legs that skipped when they walked or ran and had revolving heads. One was a humanoid head, the other was some sort of demon shape with great steel saw blades for teeth. They’d been sent out to scare them but had been beaten down with efficiency. They’d been given the imaginative name Hounds.

Then came ones that looked like ones they expected. Modified Bastion units and Croakers that skimmed the top of the sands and debris like manta rays and other things out of nightmare. There were also humanoid looking omnics made of perfectly smooth and shining metal, elegant of form with guns for arms or rockets mounted on their shoulders. The Hounds had just been to test out their assault, see where they were, make them attack the blitz. It had been an intelligent move. More so then omnics usually used. Typical tactics for them was to just hit the humans in a straight line until the human line broke under their superior numbers. Fighting omnics was like fighting against an ocean tide. You didn’t beat it so much as endured it, wore it down, and then waded out into the flats and built a dam.

Jack had his back against a wall in some half destroyed building that had once been a two family home. Sweat poured down his face, leaving tracks in the dirt. His ears ached from being pressed down in this damn helmet for so long. It was calm around him, finally. The last thing they’d seen had been a pair of Croakers with gently undulating wings flying down the street a bit higher than head height. Ana had shot one clear through where it’s ‘brain’ was, Gabriel had shoved his shotgun into the other and pulled the trigger, shredding the entire thing into screaming shrapnel. Then they’d run and now they were hiding out here. Him, Gabriel, Ana, and part of their platoon. The other part were in another building. This one wasn’t big enough for all of them.

They stood or sat or crouched in silence. They were waiting.

Jack looked up, even if all he saw was the ceiling, when they heard whistling. Some of his men shifted but otherwise did nothing. Jack counted the seconds. They felt the concussive shockwave from the explosion even this far out. It made the dust rattle and the house groan.

“Alright, there it was,” Gabriel said using his rifle to help him stand.

Jack pushed himself off from the wall and tried pulling his ears down, even more, to help relieve the pressure they had from being pressed by the helmet. It made everything sound sort of distant from him. “Everyone get ready, we’re about to head out,” Jack said into his mic.

The platoon gathered along the edges of the road, or what had once been a road. Giza used to be beautiful. The omnium that had been constructed had turned it from a prosperous and thriving city into a metropolis. The same omnium had toppled or scavenged half the skyscrapers there for parts and eroded part of the land around it, creating a crater around the omnium to feed its glass production. What it was doing with the glass no one knew yet. If they got into the omnium they’d know. Now the city was a husk of its former beauty. Destroyed and in ruins, it was now a battlefield.

Jack and Gabriel’s platoon was the closest one to the omnium. It rose like a great, terrible monolith above the destroyed buildings. Now and then they’d watch it spit Croakers or Wasps out into the air. Thankfully much of the ground forces had been distracted away to other parts of the battlefield so their platoon could get in close. “Ready up,” Gabriel said, just to give everyone an anchor, a strong, trusted voice amid not a little bit of terror. Jack thought he looked in his element here. Strong, capable, and ready to kick ass. This was the Gabriel he liked best, even more than the soft smiles he gave Jack when no one was looking. They all looked to Gabriel for what to do next. He just made a few hand signs and they fell into place. Part of the platoon moved out ion either direction. One went forward to scout ahead, another fell back to watch their six. The rest strung out in a line, watching their flanks and staying in pairs or trios to minimize casualties and keep the odds good should they made contact with the enemy.

They traveled about a klick before finding where the explosion had occurred. They’d called in an airstrike to knock out part of a collapsed building and through the twisted metal and rebar, they had an almost unobstructed view of the omnium. They were only half a dozen blocks from it now. They picked their way through the rubble to the other side of the street and resumed formation.

They’d made it half the way when one of their forward soldiers hissed over the comms. “Contact.” Everyone ducked behind the nearest cover. Jack and Gabriel found cover near one another behind a short wall that had once held up a building. Neither of them peaked even though Jack’s curiosity always made him want to. He knew better than that. They waited and their patience was ‘rewarded’ with omnics. Jack looked across the street and saw some of his platoon pressed up against walls, guns pointed up but ready if needed. Everyone held very still. Next to him, Jack could barely hear Gabriel breathing. He just wanted to tear off his helmet so he could hear better because hearing the ominous muffled steps of omnics was absolute torture.

It was just a small group of them but too dangerous to engage without heavy firepower. Two of the modified looking Bastions with a pack of the Hounds. Jack held his breath as they walked past. No way they could fight two Bastions. They had armor piercing rounds but you needed real tank busting guns to down one of those monsters without long, sustained, fire. If they were seen they’d be shredded. They took forever to walk down the street, past them. Jack could hear their digimechanical language even through his helmet and it made his ears ring. Everyone always said all they heard was beeps or other vaguely machine sounds. Jack’s ears could hear higher frequencies, he could hear the nuances to them. Had no idea what they meant but they always left a ringing in his ears afterwards. Between the ringing and the sound of robot feet on the ground it was all Jack could hear. He couldn’t even hear his own heartbeat.

Gabriel nudged him and he opened his eyes he hadn’t realized he’d had squeezed close like that would block out the noise. Gabriel made a subtle head motion towards the street. The Bastions had walked past. Jack shook his head. Wait. Bastions had long range capabilities and they weren’t far enough away. They waited until the silence almost became unbearable. Jack leaned around the wall now, finally allowing himself to peak when he heard the softest whirl of a machine saw.

There was a crack and he looked up and over the wall. One of the Hounds had been creeping over the wall he and Gabriel had been hiding behind. It’s head had been blown clear off and it lay stiff and twisted on the rubble behind them. “Jesus,” Jack breathed.

“Didn’t even hear it,” Gabriel said, standing up next to him to see.

“You’re welcome,” Ana’s voice said over the comms. He didn’t see her or know where she was but that was the point of having a sniper watch your back.

“Thanks,” Jack said.

Gabriel stepped out from the cover slowly, carefully, looking up at the sky as he did so just to be sure a Croaker or Wasp wasn’t passing overhead. Skies clear he got everyone out from cover and had them continue pressing forward. The two Bastions was the only scare they had until they got right up to the omnium. The building was patrolled by more of the Hounds in tight coordination. At regular intervals Bastions were stationed in turret mode on raised platforms, round barrels pointed outwards. This was not a small amount of defense despite the battle and gunfire they could hear going on on other sides of the omnium.

Whatever was controlling the omnics here was not stupid. This wasn’t a traditional omnic defense either. Omnics were still machines, self aware, but machines all the same. They calculated risks with decimal points. Often times they’d leave part of their rear or part of a flank exposed to put more units into the offensive. Parts of the omnium not being directly assaulted often had only minor defensive omnics stationed there. Of course with their semi hive mind as soon as you attacked the unprotected part a wave crashed into you and could scatter your line if you weren’t careful. But this defense was a real threat that they’d waste Bastion units on defense when they were so good at walking forward, mowing people down. As he thought that he realized how weird it was to see those two Bastions in the street. To bust through this line of omnics they’d need a real tank buster but getting close to the Bastion was impossible. You had to flank around a Bastion to get the jump around it while it was distracted with shooting your friends but there was nowhere to flank these Bastion.

It was smart. Real smart. Human smart.

Gabriel motioned for everyone to take cover while they called in bigger guns. He, Jack, and Ana ducked into what had once been some sort of fast food place. McDonalds or some local thing, under all the dirt and destruction it was impossible to see if it was an export or not. They hunkered down away from the shattered windows with their comms guy and someone popped out a map.

In the relative safety Jack pulled off his helmet and rubbed his ears. “This is crazy,” he said.

“Which part? The homicidal robots, or the fact we’re dumb enough to fight them?” Gabriel asked dryly.

“No. The formation. It’s good. We’ve never seen omnic defenses like this before.”

“They adapt,” Ana said.

“Except we know that’s a fucking lie,” Jack growled. “Their chassis adapt. Their strategies stay the same because that’s the only way you can command so many mindless foot soldiers. You just crash them into things until you break it. They’re smart but they’re also no smarter than normal people. They didn’t know how to make war until they started doing it and they only have limited access to the internet thanks to knocking out the major service towers and cutting major lines of communications so they couldn’t become too well versed.”

“So what are you thinking?” Gabriel asked.

“You guys hear about that god program rumor running around?”

“It’s just a rumor,” Ana said dismissively. “There is no hyper intelligent omnic AI.”

“That we’ve seen. But here it is,” Jack pointed in the general direction of the omnium where the line of Bastions were waiting. “Smart tactics. Human level tactics. It sent a fucking Bastion patrol out on a quiet flank with a pack of the Hounds. Traditional omnic reasoning doesn’t understand the importance of maintaining low level ground sweeps. It’s not statistically reasonable or statistically efficient to their plans. Waste of ‘manpower’ if you will that could be used instead to be fighting on the actual front.

“And don’t you think it’s weird how quiet this omnium has been? Other omniums eventually spill out and engage with humans because they are trying to stake a claim on the Earth. This one doesn’t. It’s just been sitting here. Meaning we have no idea what’s going on inside and haven’t gotten anyone inside. At least when other omniums open up we can get into them, disrupt them for a little while before they somehow fix themselves. And how do they fix themselves? No idea. No one has any fucking idea. Just one day they start pumping out omnics again.”

“Jack, you sound like a lunatic,” Gabriel said will an eye roll.

“I’m just _saying_ that it all seems pretty ridiculous and convenient is all,” he said. “And now with the ‘god program’ idea out there. Maybe there’s some truth to it?”

“The god program rumor started because people are scared and need someone to blame,” Ana said. “No way an entire new race just hates us for no reason. They want a villain in the story, Jack, an evil they can say ‘that god program killed my friend’ because it’s easier than ‘a mindless killing machine killed my friend’. Because if there’s evil then it isn’t meaningless. It means we’re fighting for something. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Jack looked away. “I can’t. But that doesn’t mean I’m not right.”

“God programs aren’t real,” Ana said. “If they were we would have heard of them from the Omnica Corp when they gave over everything about the omniums and omnics they had. Unless you think robots are smart enough to program smarter than themselves?” she asked.

“She’s got a point, Jack,” Gabriel said.

Jack sighed. “Fine,” he said but wasn’t convinced. He’d let them have this point though. Better than arguing about it.

“Great. Now, are we going to blow them up now?” Gabriel asked.

“Sounds like a plan,” Ana said. They turned to the holographic map and started figuring out the best way to attack this thing. They’d get one shot at this and once their cover was blown the omnics from around the front would collapse on them. They had the comms guy call in the artillery. It wasn’t as urgent as some other bombardment that was needed that instant and they’d need enough attention and sustained shelling to bust through. It’d be a few minutes until enough guns were more available. Gabriel communicated the news to the rest of their platoon, telling everyone to sit tight, stay out of sight, and try to relax. Once they got word the shells were coming it’d be go time.

Jack found somewhere to sit against a wall while they waited. Above was an open sky, no clouds, clear as an autumn day in Indiana. He looked over at footsteps and saw it was Gabriel. He’d taken off his helmet too and came to sit next to him with a groan. They sat in silence, it was nice. Gabriel never filled the air with idle chatter and Jack appreciated his comfortable silence. “You really think that rumor’s true?” Gabriel asked after a minute.

“About the god program? Maybe,” he shrugged. “Not sure. It’s just a lot of circumstantial evidence. No one’s actually laid eyes on or come ‘face to face’ with a god program. Ana could be right. People just want an evil in this war so it seems meaningful.”

“Do you?”

“What?”

“Think you need to have evil for a war to be meaningful?”

“Well if there isn’t then I’m just killing innocents.”

“Maybe you just want the god program to be real too, so you don’t feel bad,” Gabriel said.

Jack gave him a look. “And what about you huh Mr. Shining Moral Achievement?”

Gabriel looked at him, “I like shooting things,” he said and it was so honest Jack couldn’t even hate him for it. “And I know you didn’t join SEP because you’re some blindly idealistic boy scout. Some part of you likes it, otherwise you wouldn’t have endured the shit we endured.”

“I want to help people.”

“Me too,” Gabriel said. “I’m just not fooling myself saying I don’t like the work.”

Jack leaned back against the wall. “Yeah. Guess you’re right,” he said. They sat in silence again and Jack started, his ears going straight up when Gabriel leaned over and started touching them. Jack felt his hair stand on end some and he fought down a flush. “What are you-“ he barely got out around his indignation. This was incredibly inappropriate at a time like this!

“Thought they’d be sore,” was all Gabriel said.

Jack flicked his ears back in annoyance. “Not the time,” he growled. Gabriel removed his hand a bit of a confused look on his face. He just shrugged and looked away. They sat there in silence again and Jack thought it felt a bit more strained than usual. Gabriel had just been trying to help since he knew how damn sore his ears got under his helmet. He also should have known Jack didn’t like them touched at work or while they were in the middle of a live fucking battlefield.

“Boys,” Ana called from somewhere. “Artillery is on its way.”

“Right,” Gabriel said loud enough for her to hear.

He dragged himself to his feet and grabbed his helmet, pulling it back on. Jack followed his lead. He ran his hand through his hair, pushing back his ears some so they’d fit better in the helmet. At the very least the helmet had been designed with animi in mind, with extra room at the top for your ears. But it hadn’t been designed by an animi because the space wasn’t big enough and left to tip crushing. Jack would have rather worn a regular person’s helmet which just pressed his ears down all the way because then he could have at least pushed them entirely over to one side. The animi helmet allowed just enough room for them to pop back up while not allowing them all the way up which caused horrible ear soreness.

Jack sucked it up and joined Gabriel and Ana near the front of the destroyed store, turning their eyes towards the omnium and it’s defensive line of Bastions. Gabriel was giving commands over comms. Then they started to hear the whistling. Despite it all Jack’s ears still tried to perk up to follow the sound, moving uncomfortably under the helmet. Everyone felt the blast as the shells smashed into the Bastion line and also part of the omnium. Immediately a fleet of Wasps and Croakers rose up from their lower flight paths and made a b-line for where the artillery was shelling the battlefield some miles away. The bombardment lasted nearly a solid minute before cutting off. Their comms guy got confirmation that shelling had ceased. Gabriel signaled for everyone to move out and they double timed it towards the omnium.

The Bastion line had been obliterated to a distance too far to be significant. There were huge holes in the ground and the wall of the omnium had been torn to pieces. Even as they got closer swarms of nanites rose up like lightning bugs from the floor of the omnium to begin repairing the outer wall. The purpose of Jack and Gabriel’s platoon was to open an omnium and then _keep_ it open. Opening an omnium wasn’t that hard. It was just a metal factory, it blew up. But the nanite swarms that infested the entire place always did quick work of stitching it closed again. It meant keeping it open for other strike teams was serious, and very dangerous work.

Unfortunately the best offense against the omnics was an EMP which also crippled their military. So they had to get creative in keeping an omnium open. Dampeners were placed along the ground of the opening and as they were being dropped everyone started to hear the whirl of saw blades.

“Group up, keep your backs in,” Gabriel’s voice cut over the sound of the Hounds’ strange saw blade heads. The platoon created a defensive circle around the engineers working as fast as they could to stabilize the omnium opening.

“Bastions coming in at three o’clock,” Jack said, looking at the the Bastions who’d been standing guard some several hundred yards away transforming out of tank mode into assault mode.

“And nine,” someone chimed in.

“Hounds at two and eleven.”

Jack looked around, his gun following his line of sight. The Hounds weren’t running full sprint at them. Rather they skipped around, saw blades whirling, stalking around a dozen feet out. This close Jack could see that they weren’t melee omnics like he’d thought. There was a launcher in the back of their human shaped skull. He saw it just before it was too late. “Shields up!”

“Fire at will!” Gabriel barked at the same time. Those who listened to Jack pulled up dragon scale covered steel shields as the motor in the back of the Hounds’ skull clicked back, then it and the entire skull flicked forward at blinding speed, sending one of the saw blades flying. Jack ducked behind one of the shields. Elsewhere his men screamed as the saws ripped into their bodies and limbs. Gunfire started soon after. The sound echoed in his helmet. A saw thumped against the shield Jack was hiding behind.

“Good call,” the man holding the shield said, looking at him. But his eyes were a bit wide, terrified. They’d never fought Hounds before.

“I need concentrated fire on the Bastion coming in hot at nine o’clock,” Gabriel said over comms. Those who could turned away from firing at the Hounds and shot at the Bastion which was now also shooting at them as it walked slowly ever forward like inevitability.

Jack barely looked at it. He was looking at the Hounds he was tracking around the dragon scale shield. The soldier he was behind moved it with him to keep him protected as he took aim at the thing’s thighs and legs. It wasn’t a super stable omnic, having to bounce everywhere and it’s body was made up mostly of wires and. If he could just knock out some of its cables or fake ligaments. He laid down suppressive fire to keep it moving so it couldn’t fling more saw blades at them and in the spray he downed two of them. They clattered to the ground still and pitiful legs sticking straight out under them.

Jack put his hand on the shield bearer’s shoulder to make him turn. As he did he saw the other Bastion closest to them was getting closer now. “Is that nine Bastion down?” he asked into comms. “If it is I need the one at our three taken out yesterday.” He couldn’t worry about that though. Bastions were big targets and absorbed a lot of bullets. You wanted it done quickly you got a tank buster otherwise you just had to pump bullets into it till it stopped working. Jack couldn’t waste his precision on a Bastion. He needed to spend his time chipping away at the pack of Hounds. He felled three more and those not gunning down the Bastions were doing the same. They felled the second Bastion and the gun clatter halted when the last Hound finally fell over like a strange, horrible, goat.

The next closest Bastion would take a few minutes to get there at the slow pace they went. Jack stood up fully, “How’s our opening, boys?” he asked the engineers who were still working as quickly as they could. The entire destruction of the Bastions and the pack of Hounds had taken about five minutes.

“Almost there, Lieutenant,” one of them said.

“Head into the omnium, prepare it for defensive measures,” Gabriel said. The platoon picked itself up and went into the open wound of the omnium, through the cloud of nanites, and into the factory. They heard things being broken and dragged immediately.

Jack walked over to Gabriel. He had blood splatter on his uniform, someone else's, and his guns were covered in omnic ichor. “You’re a lunatic,” Jack said. He’d run through all his rifle ammo, probably shooting the Bastion, and had taken out his shotgun at one point. It was splattered with coolant and ichor. He’d gotten up close with those Hounds.

Gabriel looked at him and gave him a mad sort of smile. Under his helmet his ears tried to turn towards him and he felt his tail twitching against his leg inside the leg of his pants. “I just reap what is sewn,” he said.

“And still with the lame jokes,” Jack gave him a friendly punch in the arm. “One day those lame jokes aren’t going to help you.”

“Yeah but at least I’ll get the last word in,” Gabriel said and followed Jack to the omnium.

“Gabriel, you’d get the last word in at your own _funeral_.” That made Gabriel laugh.

“No te equivocas en lo más mínimo” Gabriel said. They stopped at the engineers. “So, how much longer?” Gabriel asked.

“They’re more persistent than usual,” one said, swatting at a cloud of nanites trying to start resealing the omnium.

“That’s not what I wanna hear-

“What’s the issue?” Jack asked.

“They’re different,” the engineer said. “Hutch got some samples to bring back to the base for us to analyze. But they aren’t responding quite like how we predicted. We’re gonna lose some space. Need to fill in more gaps with emitters.”

“But it’ll be big enough?” Gabriel asked.

“It’ll be big enough-

“Contact!” someone called.

Gabriel and Jack darted into the omnium. More Hounds. More fucking Hounds. These ones were different then even the ones outside. Their saw blades were bigger and they walked instead of hopping. There was something strange and ethereal about the saws too. They seemed almost translucent in the house lights. “Keep down, shields up!” Jack yelled and they separated, each going to one side of the omnium where their platoon had split to guard either side of the opening.

Jack made it into cover just as the first blades were launched. Unlike the ones outside when these blades hit the ground or anything hard, they smashed. Jack looked down at the  broken blade. He saw shattered glass. The saw blades were made of goddamn glass so when they hit a target there was a chance they'd break, splinter, and be impossible to fully remove. It was a hideous war tactic. Nothing like he'd ever seen but he understood instantly as yet another hint of a god program everyone said didn't exist. It also explained why the omnium had created a huge sand sinkhole. But just for the glass saws on these Hounds?

His question was answered in the worst way. Even as they shot down a dozen Hounds humanoid omnics, beautiful and deadly, came out from the bowels of the omnium. They had strange long and narrow funnel shaped guns that attached to their chest and shoulders that was connected to a huge backpack unit that made their otherwise elegant shape lumpy. And there was smaller pair of omnics with two mini guns attached to each arm. Like the other omnics these were pretty over functional in appearance other than the guns attached to their arms.

Prototypes.

This omnium was prototyping omnics for the war. It was why they'd never seen the Hounds before.

The gatling guns started to whirl and Jack ducked behind cover as it sprayed suppressive fire around the room. It didn't sound like bullets. The sound it made were gentle almost. A ping not a bang. He looked for the bullets but found nothing, just more glass.

As the smaller omnics reloaded their guns Jack chanced a peak at the dragon scale shield. It was pincushioned with dozens of slivers of glass each as long as his hand, an inch around, and razor sharp. Again with the glass.

He looked at the bigger omnics. Then what sort of glass nightmare were these things going to produce? He didn't have to wait long for the answer. It was a stream of liquid hot glass that splashed across their line like a rope. Someone screamed as it caught them across the arm and there’s wasn’t the only scream.

“Shit shit shit,” someone near him started to chant. Over the comms Gabriel ordered the shield angles adjusted to help prevent splash over.

“Take down the big ones first,” Jack ordered. Not a few of his men immediately blind fired around their shields or over the top of their cover. At the very least the molten glass had a very short range and didn't last very long before it had to stop. It wasn't like a flame thrower the Croakers used which could almost be used forever either. It very obviously ran out.

When the molten glass stopped the smaller omnics sprayed down the line with more glass needle bullets. More Hounds had arrived. “How's our opening?” he asked his engineers over the gunfire over the comms.

“We're sustaining.”

“Bastions incoming and the Croakers and Wasps got bored with the artillery and are coming your way, Jack,” Ana said. 

“Shit.” He'd forgotten about the air support. “Can you pick some off?” he asked as Gabriel was ordering their men to push over the other frequency. 

“Flyers, sure. Bastions? It'd be one hell of a shot.”

“Show me how you earned all those models, Ana. Keep us safe,” Jack said.

“Is that a challenge, or an order?”

“Both,” he said.

“Consider it done,” she said and Jack turned more of his attention back to what he'd been doing. While he'd been talking with Ana he'd been helping with cover fire but now he could focus on shooting in full.

The smaller omnics were keeping them pinned good between the glass needles and the saw blades. This wasn't mindless constant fire. The Hounds and mini gunners were synchronizing their fire so they each had time to reload. The entire time other machines were flying on multiple rotors and filling up the big omnics’ backpack tank with more perfectly fine sand.

“Aim for the drones,” he ordered. “Don't let them finish filling those sand tanks.” He sighted up a drone and shot at it in quick, controlled, bursts. The soldiers near him did the same. “And try to hit the sand tanks.” Some shifted their aim and started to pepper the bigger omnics with bullets, pushing them back to protect their sensitive sand tanks from damage.

“Hounds incoming!” someone called and Jack looked briefly to watch a pack of them sprint from deeper in the omnium. Their heads shifted, became more humanoid to give themselves jaws full of blades. Half of them fell in a spray of bullets. Three made it to where Gabriel was holding the line.

“Sir, we have a stable opening,” one of his engineers cut through the chaos into Jack's ear. As he said that there was screaming from the other side of the omnium as the Hounds bit down with their whirling saw blade mouths. He heard Gabriel's shotgun go off a few times and shattering glass but couldn't focus on it.

Jack turned to his comms guy who'd stuck close to him the entire time. “Call in reinforcements. The omnium is open,” he ordered.

“Yes, sir,” he ran after that to get out of the omnium which completely disrupted their long range communications. As he did Jack did a count of who was left alive in their platoon. They'd come up the omnium fifty strong, entered at probably close to forty five and now they were only thirty or so left. That was just the dead. Others were injured and being tended to by their medic who was assisting someone who had been splashed across the chest during the molten glass volley.

“Medic!” someone yelled. “Medic! Commander Reyes is down!”

Jack's ears tried to stand up. All he ended up doing was hurting himself. Jack looked at the medic who was trying to deal with the glass that was burning off skin and had someone else on his other side, their face dripping blood and filled with glass needles. They looked up, towards the cry, then at Jack hopelessly. He could go help Gabriel but if he did these other two men would die.

Jack motioned for the medic to stay where he was. He checked his gear and then turned to his men, “Cover me. I'm going to Reyes.” They nodded, grim faced. Gunfire followed him as he readied himself and then sprinted across the open area between the two covered positions. “Where's Reyes?” he asked once on the other side. They pointed. “Good. Keep us covered. Don't let anything else through.”

“Yes sir,” they nodded and Jack ducked down as he walked under the line of cover. Then he saw Gabriel too far forward with the remains of a Hound next to him while two of their men covered him after they'd dragged him into cover. 

Jack waited for another round of suppression fire before darting out of the main line. He slid the last few feet as he heard the Hounds start to whirl and got behind cover just as a fresh volley was launched. He directed the men guarding Gabriel to continue to keep them safe before finally turning his attention to him.

When he looked at Gabriel the firefight fell away and the only thing he could see was Gabriel. He had one of the saw blades from the downed Hounds stuck in his flank and it was pouring blood. “Gabriel,” he said and Gabriel looked up at him, tired. “Hey. Hey,” he gently patted his face. “You’re gonna be alright.”

“Right,” he groaned.

“Just don’t move-

“Kinda hard to do that.”

“And stop fucking talking you idiot,” he hissed. Gabriel just gave a groan of an ‘okay’. His head drooped a little. “Gabriel- Gabriel. Don’t close your eyes. I can’t help you if you close your eyes,” he said, grabbing Gabriel’s face in both hands and pulling it back up. Gabriel inhaled sharply through his nose like he’d just woken. “Just look at me, okay?”

Gabriel’s mouth twitched a little. “Good view,” he said.

“Yeah, it is, isn’t it?” Jack yanked his pack off. They weren’t supposed to use these unless it was an emergency. Still sort of prototype technology. Biotics had been used for surgical and healing properties before but usually in surgery or in hospitals. Not to treat field wounds. Jack had been given them as part of a new project the UN was cooking up. They wanted to see them used in a real live fire scenario. Said if they were good enough for some SEP soldiers they were good enough for Overwatch. Jack had no idea what that meant but if it meant they were juiced up he was willing to use them.

“Pretty,” Gabriel said as Jack took out the canister. It glowed yellow in his hand.

“Yeah, it is, huh?” he asked and shook it like he’d been instructed to.

“Atontado,” Gabriel grumbled. “Me refería tí,” Jack had no idea what he was saying. He was just going on in nonsense. "Reacciona si te llamo hermoso, gatito."

If he was talking he was alive. “Don’t scream,” he said. This could be bad but it was also a quick fix. He had to do this in one shot or the glass could break on its way out. He grabbed a ball of bandages from his gear and took a deep breath to steady himself and force his hand to stop shaking.

“Don’t- AH—!” Jack covered his mouth as he yanked the saw blade out of his body. Tears immediately sprang into Gabriel’s eyes and he convulsed a little, his body gushing blood from the wound and some of it splattered on Jack’s uniform.

Jack slammed the end of the canister into Gabriel’s open wound, elating another, smaller, cry of pain his bandage covered hand putting pressure on the wound to help stem some of the bleeding. He had no idea what the hell this was going to do but bleeding out wouldn’t be helpful. Jack felt the blood stem a little as Gabriel’s eyes rolled in his head and Jack grabbed his face, his hands covered in Gabriel’s blood. “Hey. Hey. Look at me Gabriel,” he said. Gabriel’s eyes focused and he blinked, his eyelids out of sync with each other. “I got you,” he said softly, a promise. He swore to god these damn biotics better do something. “Just focus on me, Gabriel.”

The light from the biotic canister started to dim as they ran flush through the wound which dripped with golden light. Jack hardly noticed. Gabriel closed his eyes and Jack leaned closer, stricken. No no no no. Not like this. He’d never told Gabriel the things he wanted to tell him. Then Gabriel breathed out and his breath was filled with glowing biotics like a sunbeam. He opened his eyes, they focused on Jack. “Fuck,” he said with a rough smile. “That was a close one,” he said, out of breath. Jack looked down and his hand followed his gaze. Gabriel winced a little from the sensitiveness of his skin but the biotics had sealed his wound and healed whatever damage had been done internally. All there was left was new, shiny, scar tissue. “Oh, c’mon Jack. I’m alive. No need for the mellow drama,” he said. Jack blinked and looked up in surprise. He had tears in his eyes.

Jack just hugged him.

Once he’d calmed down a little he let go of Gabriel. “Just stay here,” he said and grabbed his gun. It was slick in his hands from being covered in Gabriel’s blood.

“Where are you going?”

“Opening was stabilized. Need to just hold the line until reinforcements come in. I’m calling for our platoon to retreat and for an evac.”

“I’m fine.”

Jack looked at him when he tried to get up and put his hand on his shoulder, shoving him back down. “You are _not_ fine. You might be patched up but you lost a lot of blood. Half our platoon is dead. No shame in living to fight another day by calling in a retreat. Now stay there. I’ll come back for you,” he ordered.

“Sir,” Gabriel said and gave him a tired salute.

Jack turned his attention back to the greater threat at hand. “We need to get keep the omnium clear until our backup comes, everyone. Get rid of those damn glass throwers.”

“Which one?” someone, some beautiful wise ass that made up most of the platoon, asked.

“All of them,” Jack said and moved away from the cover where Gabriel was against. He popped up over the top of the next barrier and mowed down a pair of Hounds running at him. He helped keep the omnics back to avoid more casualties and directed his men to keep eyes on the Hounds and the mini gunners after they’dfinally blasted holes in the sand tanks, rendering the glass spitters useless.

“Commander Morrison,” someone spoke up into his comm, “we have friendlies in the air. Backup is here.”

“Oh thank god,” Jack sighed in absolute relief. “Sandbag it as best you can everyone. We’re about to get our relief!” There was a little cheering from everyone. “What’s our ETA?” he asked the comms.

“Four minutes. Just hold position.”

“Roger.”

The next four minutes crawled by. There was no ending to the Hounds and the glass needle launchers were also growing in numbers. They’d started with two and while three had been killed there were five on the field. The omnium had only been cracked open for five minutes. The bigger omnics were finally making their way to the breach. Jack could hear them lumbering a few walls over. The platoon just focused on staying alive for those four minutes.

They knew backup had arrived when there was a heavy thud outside the omnium. Jack looked back to see one of their own mechs pull itself to its feet. Five more followed behind it. Unlike the machines they fought there was very little automatic about human mechs, nothing to become infected. They shrugged off the fall and lumbered into the omnium. They were about as tall as a single story house with a cockpit like a bulldog and walked on huge hydraulic and piston powered legs. Each one had a turret gun mounted to their arm bigger than a man, the other hand was used to stabilize the aim or reload. It was still a hand though. A hand put to good use as the first one made it into the omnium and smashed one of the Hounds like you would swat a fly.

For the first time all day, Jack smiled.

“Everyone, gather the wounded, we’re getting out of here,” Jack said over comms as the big guns spun up and laid down huge firepower on the omnics giving them trouble.

Outside more craft and mechs were landing. Soldiers spilled out of helicopters and ran into the omnium. Some stopped and helped carry members of the platoon out to get lifted out. Others charged forward, moving through the legs of the mechs to start penetrating deeper into the omnium. Jack didn’t worry about that. His mission had been completed. His platoon had done everything they could. They were going to pull out, mourn, and rest up for their next mission.

Jack stood and walked out of the omnium without fear. The omnics around had been dealt with and elsewhere artillery was blowing holes in the omnium for the hell of it as the troops putting pressure along other lines of the conflict pulled back to either retreat or be redirected at the stable, open, hole. Soldiers rushed past him, and more engineers to establish a true beach head here inside the omnium. Jack just counted those left in his platoon, made sure they made it out. Bodies that could be were also recovered and brought out to the choppers.

Jack didn’t get aboard the evac choppers until all his men, living, hurt, or dead, had gotten on before him. As he waited Ana came up to him, her sniper rifle slung over her shoulder. She had dirt and sweat covering her face but somehow her hair was still perfect. “My commanders weren’t playing you boys up it seems,” she said approvingly. “Never seen someone get an omnium open in ten minutes before.”

“That’s cause you’ve never seen us before,” he said with a cocky grin.

“Heh. Yeah.”

“And how about those Bastions?”

“See for yourself,” she nodded towards where the Bastions had been coming for them. They’d only taken down two before but Ana had downed both of the other ones with her single rifle. The area was also littered with Croakers and Wasps. Then in her spare time, or maybe just to show off, she’d killed the Bastions coming in next after the ones she’d downed.

“Knew you could do it,” he said and gave her a fond little smack on the shoulder.

“Sir, everyone’s aboard but you,” someone said into his ear.

“Right, coming. Shall we?” he asked Ana. “Unless you wanna stay?”

“I think I’ve had my fill of excitement for the week,” she said and they both got onto the chopper.

Luck would have it that they were on the same one Gabriel was on. Someone had strapped their commander into his seat but he wasn’t awake. Jack went and sat next to him and took off his helmet. His hair stuck out in every direction was sweat and his ears were soaked. The chopper lifted up and Jack leaned over to check his wound. While Gabriel was still covered in his own blood, his uniform beyond destroyed, where the glass saw blade had sliced into him had been completely healed. He smiled at that as the chopper took them away back to the Egyptian rear.

—

Unlike some of the other wounded Gabriel didn’t need surgery or intensive care. He’d shown up at the hospital and after an initial frantic rush to get his shirt off to treat his wounds, only to find none, they’d put him in a bed to deal with him later. Once the actual emergencies had been dealt with they got to Gabriel and hooked him up to an IV and a minor blood infusion to help with the several pints he’d lost. Jack cleaned up some, mainly changing his uniform to not be covered in Gabriel’s blood, spoke with the upper commanders, spoke his worry and evidence about the legitimacy of a god program, and was otherwise debriefed. He returned the biotic canister he hadn’t used and was told his platoon had done well enough to earn some quality rest time until they needed another omnium busted. It would also be time to train up the replacements for the losses they’d sustained busting it open in the first place.

Jack took that for what it was and went to find Gabriel. He found him easy enough, passed out. A doctor was in the room with him, looking under his hospital gown and writing something on a clipboard. They started when Jack closed the door. “You can’t be in here,” they stammered.

Jack rose a brow at them. “I’m pretty sure I can be. Unless you want to tell the person who opened the omnium today what to do?” The doctor was not military sort. They were fidgety, nervous, and didn’t look at Jack head on. “You supposed to be in here, doc? What are doing?” he asked cooly, looking down on them. Wasn’t hard, they were shorter than him.

They broke in an instant. “I’m with the UN. They wanted me to see the affects the biotics had. That’s all!”

“Yeah?” Jack approached them. “And?”

“He’s fine. Perfectly fine. Probably the best health he’s ever been in if your report on how you used the canister is to be believed.”

“I use it wrong?”

“Think of it like a healing grenade. You pumped the entire canister into his system. I’m surprised he’s not awake right now-

“Yo lo estoy por tu cotorreom” Gabriel growled threateningly. They both looked at Gabriel who was laying in bed, now awake and glaring at the UN doctor. “Get. I’m not a science project.”

“I mean that’s up-

Jack grabbed the doctor’s shoulder and without preamble or consent very gently threw him out. He locked the door to keep him out. “Gracias,” Gabriel said and relaxed into the bed.

“You’re welcome,” Jack said. That was about the extent of his Spanish knowledge. He went over to Gabriel’s bed and stood next to it. “Feeling alright?”

“Yeah. I feel good. Tired, but good,” Gabriel said. He looked away from Jack to do some exploring of his latest scar. “That stuff is a real kick in the mouth, ya know. Felt like I got shot full of adrenaline.” He looked back up at Jack after making sure his wound was okay and not actually a wound. “And that’s gonna be one hell of a scar story. Got almost sawed in half and then got brought back with liquid sunshine.”

“Very poetic,” Jack agreed with a grin. Gabriel smiled a little as he leaned against the pillows. “You really scared me, though,” Jack said. “I wasn’t sure what it would do. This is why I’m always telling you-

“Don’t go running in first. I know, I know,” Gabriel sighed, finishing for him.

“And yet you do it all the time anyway.”

“What can I say? Hard to teach an old dog new tricks,” he teased Jack.

“Hardly. You take training better than anyone in SEP,” Jack said. That made Gabriel laugh. “Just don’t get yourself killed. Deal?” he asked.

“I think I can agree to that,” Gabriel nodded.

“Good,” Jack leaned down because he just wanted to kiss Gabriel so bad. He was surprised when Gabriel turned away. “Hmm?”

Gabriel had a very serious look on his face. “Let’s uh… not,” he said. Jack’s brows furrowed.“Getting kinda real here.”

“Huh?” Jack still didn’t understand.

Gabriel looked at him and it was mean. “I don’t want you to get any wrong ideas, Morrison.” The finality of his last name made it feel like Jack had been the one hit by the saw blade.

“Oh?” Jack asked, keeping his voice even, undisturbed, to not show how hurt he was. He kept his ears sticking straight up. Any other time they just did as came natural but at this second they were not going to betray him. “So it’s just physical then? Fine.” Then before Gabriel could say anything else or make Jack mad he said, “Could be grateful I saved you life at least.” Because fuck him. If he was going to act like an asshole Jack would one hundred percent treat him like one.

“I am. I really am,” Gabriel said. “Just put some things in perspective. Lets keep it professional.” Jack looked down at Gabriel and hated him for saying this but could also see he didn’t want to be saying this. He was saying what he thought was best because Gabriel had almost died out there. This whole thing worked because there was no strings. That still didn’t mean it wasn’t absolute bullshit!

“Well no shit. You lead our platoon with me. It’s professional.”

“Good.”

“Good.” Neither of them said anything. “I’ll see you when you get out of intensive. Higher-ups said our reward is some more time off. They have something else cooking for the Mexican omnium at some point way I heard it.”

“Lemmie guess; we’re the spear tip?”

“Hasn’t broken yet. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

“Great. Can’t wait.”

“Rest up. I’ll see you on the outside,” and with that Jack walked out. Once the door was between him and Gabriel his ears fell. He didn’t cry but he felt like it. He took a few seconds before walking away.

Goddamnit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Spanish translations](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NByyTNP7ssp8SjCcRuDpJ1OdOaUZFu07WAkZGrJ-43s/edit?usp=sharing)
> 
>  
> 
> FUCK. I love writing WAR SHIT!!!
> 
> Also uh-oh, it’s sad. Sorrrrryyyyyyyyy. I promise I’ll make it up to you next chapter.
> 
> If you're still enjoying you should leave a comment cause it makes my heart do a smiley face emoji.


	4. Who Will Miss You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna wait on this one. But just decided ‘fuck it’ cause it’s already done and the faster I finish this stupid AU the sooner I can move on to writing other various bullshit for you to enjoy. Cause I got… 4 more fic ideas already but first we gotta make it through this nonsense.

After the fight to keep the omnium open no one was going to complain about a little downtime. Gabriel was let out from the hospital after the first day thanks to that magical yellow sunshine stuff but the Hounds and Glasslighters had done a real number on some of their platoon. They would be a bit out of commission for a while until all new soldiers were assigned to their platoon and Jack and Gabriel had a chance to train them properly. Being on the best omnium busting platoon in the entire world wasn't something you were just naturally good at. It was a lot of training, a lot of drills, a lot of making sure you could handle it. It took Jack and Gabriel three weeks to properly train new recruits after they were put in their platoon and with getting around twenty or so new soldiers the brass was giving them six weeks to get them all up to form.

To Gabriel's surprise Ana asked to stay on with them. The UN had been thrilled about it. The Egyptian military, understandably, had not been. The Egyptians weren't willing to freely give her over to the UN so it was agreed she'd continue to be a member of the Egyptian military but would stay on contract to work specifically and only with Gabriel and Jack for omnium busting operations. That worked for them since the only thing Gabriel and Jack did was the investigation and opening of omniums.

After the hospital for a few days it was a bit of a strained relationship between Gabriel and Jack. Gabriel didn't blame him for it. He'd been a bit of a asshole. But Gabriel couldn't and didn't ever want to be the reason Jack looked like how he had at the omnium again. Just the absolute fear and worry that Gabriel might have died. He never wanted to see Jack look like that again. There was also the threat that he’d be on the other side of that mirror. If Jack would look like that at Gabriel _almost_ dying Gabriel didn’t want to open himself up to what it’d be like if Jack _actually_ died. So if he had to be an asshole. Make it clear that they should keep it physical, without attachments. For both of their sakes. That didn't mean anything had to change, it was just that, nothing should change.

Gabriel wasn't good with apologies. Especially not for something like this. He shouldn't have to apologize for trying to create boundaries just because Jack didn't like it. It was weird for a few days but Gabriel wanted to make a point that nothing had changed. So he'd shown up at Jack's room after the day of work and sucked his dick. Twice. Because Gabriel could be an asshole but he also knew how to fix things too. If Jack was mad all he had to do was make him _not_ mad. It was really hard to be mad when getting sucked off, or stay mad. He’d also made up for the kisses he’d said no to at the hospital with kisses afterwards and Jack was, if nothing else, appreciative of the attention. Gabriel was just satisfied by the end result of making Jack purr happily from said attention.

After that it was fine. Either Jack figured it out or he got over it. Gabriel didn’t know, all he cared about was that he wasn’t doing this whole thing that could end up with a bigger open wound than getting sliced open with a Hound saw blade. He was just protecting himself by not looking at whatever things he thought about Jack and just preferred to pretend there was nothing there. That it was just sex and that he did it with Jack because Jack was the only one who was interested and could keep up with him.

They focused mostly on their new recruits. A bundle of them were delivered to the base, some of them fresh out of boot, and the first day they’d stared at Jack. Then they’d learned Jack was worse than Gabriel as far as a task master. The next day they shut up, kept their eyes averted, and listened to their sergeants so they’d make it out alive. They had six weeks to turn these green skins into omnium busters and there was a lot to do. Their normal duties were suspended to the six weeks so they could focus on just that.

Ana, of course, was there, being amazing and making everyone else look like chumps be it at the range, parade formations, or even just having her uniform be more clean and perfect than everyone else’s. The green skins were also terrified of her and a few of the superstitious ones said she’d put the evil eye on them. Ana wasn’t about to say she wasn’t, Gabriel found it hilarious, and Jack, the uncultured white dude he was, was confused. Sometimes the Egyptians called her away for a press event or to run a solo mission but otherwise she was there, with them, the entire time. And since the Giza omnium where she’d personally saved both their lives at least three times there was more respect and ease between the three of them.

After six weeks of training their platoon news started popping in around base that another omnium strike was planned against the one in Mexico on the western side of Monto Tlaloc. Unlike the Giza one it was active and had clear-cut most of the jungle around it faster than any humans ever had. The omnics had used the wood to construct a huge steel and wooden wall around the omnium and backed by bricks mined from the mountain. There was something else in the wall that prevented easy destruction, something that muffled explosions and absorbed impacts. No one was quite sure what. But the wall was also fifty feet high and half as thick. Betting money was just that the wall was so hard to break through because it was such a massive thing. Only way in or out of the omnium was if you flew so all omnics produced there were winged or in some other way able to become airborne.

The actual assault was still in the planning phases. Which was where Gabriel came in. Of the omnium busters and recon platoons under the UN’s jurisdiction he’d been ‘randomly selected’ (aka he was just the best they had) to lead a small team to the Tlaloc omnium. According to the briefing they couldn’t get drones near it to do recon. They were shot down immediately. Unlike the one in Giza which you could have gotten almost right up to save for the Bastion line of defenses this one didn’t allow anything within a mile of it. If something so much as flew too close to it by accident it was shot out of the sky. The only shots they could get of it were high altitude aerials. With so much focus placed on controlling the skies they’d been able to get land drones near it but they hadn’t been very helpfulsince all they showed was the wall.

So Gabriel was supposed to take his men, get to the Tlaloc, investigate the wall, map the area around the omnium, and if possible, find a way to breach the wall or find out the third compound that made it so difficult to bust.

Sounded pretty straight forward honestly. Would take a few weeks to accomplish but the concern was with accurate, precise, data, and not speed. The omnium wasn’t going anywhere and like the one at Giza wasn’t the most active threat at the time. The one in Australia, or the one in Russia which both didn’t let people near it and launched counter strikes against nearby and distant human populations were actual, active threats against humanity. Also, unfortunately, not on Gabriel’s radar. His specialty was getting into omniums for raiding, not in the day to day combat of omnics. Not that he’d be bad at it but SEP hadn’t almost killed him to make him a foot soldier.

Once he’d been given the mission he was allowed to select his own team. It’d be a dozen men or women from his platoon or anyone else he wanted within reason. He thought about Ana and Jack but knew it was a bad idea. He’d worry too much and he was the leader of the unit. Jack or Ana would backtalk or sass him the entire time, even if it was just in jest. This was a delicate operation. He couldn’t afford to bring them. So instead he picked several of the veterans from his platoon and the cream of the crop from some recon and strike platoons to even it out.

Gabriel took a few days off from helping Jack train their recruits to deal with his personal team for his next mission. They spent four days going over the mission parameters and expectations with a fine toothed comb and at the end of the four days everyone was satisfied that this mission would go fairly simply because part of the mission was not to engage hostiles unless engaged.

That just left for Gabriel to break the news to Jack that he’d be finishing the training solo. He wasn’t looking forward to it. Jack would get that look that would make Gabriel rethink if he actually treated this thing as ‘physically’ as he pretended to. But it had to be done. He still put it off to the last minute because he was a pussy.

—

Gabriel had learned something pretty quick about Jack when they started this entire thing. He didn’t like people knowing he had a tail. It was a real point of contention for him. Even more than his ears kids had pulled on his tail when he was little and so disliked anyone finding out about it. So he usually kept it tucked under his pants, against his leg, or he’d wrap it around his waist a little to avoid people seeing it. Gabriel put down not knowing Jack had a tail even when they showered together in SEP just by the fact that when you had gang showers it was sort of agreed you didn’t look below the belt.

The only time Gabriel saw Jack with his tail out was in the privacy of his room. It was the same color as the rest of his hair and had very subtle dark striping and a white tip. Now that they were out of SEP and had been moved to a different base the ban against visitations weren’t a thing. Which was good for Gabriel because he liked hanging out in Jack’s room more than his own. Mainly because Jack, through sheer dumb luck, had been assigned a room with a view. Ana also liked bothering Jack in his quarters because of the view. Gabriel liked Ana but he did not like when she encroached on his personal Jack time.

Gabriel timed telling Jack about ditching him on the last few weeks of training when Ana was busy. Ana would take any excuse to hang out with Jack so he’d waited until she couldn't be around. Jack was lying on his bed, hanging off the edge in a stupid position, his tail limp against his thigh. Gabriel came in and locked the door after him. “Amari I told you to fucking knock before just coming into my room,” Jack groaned, still hung over the bed.

“Not Amari,” Gabriel said.

Jack pushed himself up, his ears sticking straight up in the way he only did around Gabriel that was really cute. His tail also stood up, the little white tip twitching. “Gabriel,” he said, mouth smiling. “What are you doing here? Come to enjoy the view again?”

“Mmmm, something like that,” Gabriel said, but not looking at the window. “But the mountains aren’t really my thing,” he said and watched Jack’s tail curl with interest. He went over to Jack on the bed and saw he was leaning over the bed while reading from his tablet like a weirdo. Maybe there was more to the whole ‘cat-like’ than just the ears and tail and he liked being in uncomfortable looking positions while doing things just for the hell of it. “I’m more a cat video person.”

“Yeah you are,” Jack said even as Gabriel gently scratched him behind the ears. They went outwards happily and his eyes lidded in content.

Gabriel sat on the bed with him and Jack lifted himself up some so Gabriel could better pet his hair and ears. Then he moved away to sit up and kissed Gabriel, purring as he did so. Gabriel was never going to get used to kissing Jack when he purred. It was such a weird feelings. Like putting a battery in your mouth and made his tongue tingle. Jack pushed him down onto the bed and Gabriel gladly flopped down as Jack kept kissing him. Just over and over again and it was really nice.

“And I thought I was happy to see you,” Gabriel said when Jack finally stopped kissing him.

“Don’t ruin the moment, Reyes,” he grumbled. Gabriel just smirked and ran his thumb along Jack’s chin and Jack kissed the inside of his palm. He ran his hand up the side of Jack’s face to his hair and played with it some more. That just made Jack purr even more and kiss him again. “Now what’s wrong?” he asked when they parted again.

“Huh? Wrong? Nothing’s wrong,” Gabriel said.

“You’re only this much of a pushover when something’s wrong,” Jack said.

Gabriel grimaced. “I have the worst tell in the world, huh?”

“I dunno, I kinda like it,” Jack teased him and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jack’s tail curling back and forth. “So c’mon, get it over with and we can figure out if you’re gonna get laid or not,” he said, patting Gabriel’s chest.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I didn’t _do_ anything.”

“You always say that before you tell me some bullshit you did,” Jack said, an amused tilt to his lips.

“I swear, I didn’t,” Gabriel said. “I just got a new mission. It’s a long one.”

“Like how long?”

“Few weeks? Recon mission on the Tlaloc omnium. Running silent. I don’t know how long I’ll actually be gone. It’ll just be a while. So you’ll have to finish the greeny ass kicking while I’m gone with just Ana around for help.”

Jack frowned at him. He wasn’t amused or purring now. “Alright. You’ll be safe, though, right?”

“As safe as I can be,” Gabriel said. “We don’t know what’s out there. Any drones that get too close get shot down. Command is sending me and some others to check it out in depth so they can start planning the assault on it. No idea how long I’ll be out there.”

“Hmmm,” Jack ran his hand slowly along Gabriel’s chest, a thoughtful look on his face. “When are you leaving? And if you say tomorrow I’m throwing you out,” he added.

Gabriel chuckled. “No. Day after. I ain’t that dumb-

“Up for debate,” Jack said, picking at the buttons holding Gabriel’s shirt closed. Then he got up. “Just stay here,” he said and Gabriel, for once, listened. Jack disappeared into the bathroom he shared as part of the suite he had with two other officers.

Gabriel took off his boots and laid out on the bed, arms behind his head, waiting for Jack to come back out. Took him a little while but Gabriel appreciated the care taken. He would have been down for anything but Jack had things like ‘standards’ or whatever. While he waited he got bored and leaned over the side of the bed to grab Jack’s tablet to see what he was reading. Jack trusted him enough with his PIN to open it but when he turned it on he kinda wished he hadn’t. Jack had been reading something that made Gabriel upset on his behalf. He was looking up tail docking on animi, specifically tail docking on adults and the consequences of it. Gabriel didn’t even bother looking at it. He didn’t want to see it. Instead he found something else to occupy his boredom.

Eventually, Jack came out of the bathroom, locking that door too. Gabriel looked over the top of the tablet and lowered it slowly, more interested in Jack than the game he was playing. Jack was naked and gently touching his ears to get the last of the water out. “Well, this feels familiar,” Gabriel said. Jack shook his head rapidly to shake the water off and went over to Gabriel on the bed.

“Which part? Finding you in my room like it’s yours when I get out of a shower, or you seeing me come out of the shower?”

“Either,” Gabriel said as Jack kneeled on the bed. He took the tablet off Gabriel’s chest and set it on the side table. “And I don’t know why I shouldn’t act like this isn’t mine, you already are,” he smirked.

Jack flushed and Gabriel was hard pressed to say he hadn’t also felt his face heat up too but unlike Jack you couldn’t really see it on Gabriel. Gabriel really liked to deny there was anything. Was easier, less messy, that way. Worked better that way. For the both of them to not have to worry about a soldier’s fate of dying to not deal with the romantic part of each other. It was strictly to circumvent hurt feelings or any amount of heart breaking since they were both practical about the fact that they could fucking die any day. Even before the hospital any time they even skirted the edge that this was more than just physical or flirtations it turned almost hesitant. But they kept it ‘professional’ for the ease of it.

Jack cleared his throat awkwardly. “More like you have no perception of personal space,” he said.

“That too,” Gabriel agreed and pushed himself up a bit so he could kiss Jack. He put his hand on Jack’s hip and around to his back, running his hand up his spine a bit. Jack groaned against his mouth and moved to straddle his waist, holding Gabriel’s face in both hands to kiss him.

Then came Jack’s favorite part, getting Gabriel undressed. If he could help it Jack didn’t like the clumsiness that came with letting someone undress him but he loved peeling away Gabriel’s clothes until he could run his fingers on his dark skin. First went his jacket, which was open anyway, then his shirt. Jack undid each button nice and slow, not even having to stop kissing Gabriel to do so. Gabriel usually fucked it up when he had to work buttons with his eyes closed and distracted by kisses but Jack wasn’t, even with kisses or Gabriel running his hands up and down his flanks and back. Jack finally stopped kissing him so when he ran his hands up his chest under his tank top he could enjoy revealing Gabriel’s toned and muscular body. “You like doing this too much,” Gabriel said.

“It’s just foreplay, dog boy,” Jack smirked, getting in the first annoying animal pet names before Gabriel could which was a feat in itself. “Besides, you like it,” he said and ran just two fingers down the middle of his chest and stomach making Gabriel’s skin twitch. He followed that up with a kiss, hot and insistent, before yanking Gabriel’s tank top off too so he was shirtless.

“And impatient,” Gabriel grumbled.

“I’m aware,” Jack said and Gabriel groaned a little when he moved his hips against Gabriel. “But you could stand to enjoy it for a while if you’re going to be gone for so long.”

“I will enjoy it,” Gabriel said, reaching down to give Jack’s ass a firm squeeze. “I’m going to enjoy it as much as I want.” That made Jack flush.

Jack moved to get onto his hands and knees partially so he could better reach the lube he kept on the stand and so he could undo Gabriel’s pants. Gabriel finished yanking them down and kicking them off the end of the bed. Jack put a bit of lube into his hand before reaching down to start to jerk Gabriel off and kiss him at the same time. Gabriel liked the attention. Any and all of it. In between some fumbling and awkwardly realizing the bottle had rolled under his shoulder- somehow- he finally got his boxer briefs off too.

When Jack sat up to reach where Gabriel had thrown the bottle Gabriel did as well and caught a surprised moan out of him when he started kissing his chest and pushing him down onto the bed the other way. As he did he pulled Jack’s hips up towards him and Jack had to cover his mouth when Gabriel used his mouth on his cock. Had been a year or so since they’re first run in but Jack still moaned like a whore sometimes. Personally Gabriel didn’t mind he was loud but also knew it’d just make everyone super awkward if everyone had to know Jack was loud in bed. Sometimes Gabriel entertained the thought of spending some leave time where he could make Jack be as loud as he wanted. Hadn’t come up yet. Didn’t help their leave times rarely matched up.

Gabriel had one of Jack’s legs over his shoulder, the other off to the side as he pleasured him. Jack just kept one hand over his mouth, the other he had in his own hair, playing with it. Between his moans into his hand Gabriel could hear the consistent sound of him purring. “Uhg,” Jack groaned when Gabriel took his mouth away and looked down, his ears out and trembling. “Why’d you stop?”

“Where’s that bottle?” he asked. Jack tossed it to him, missed, and somehow hit him in the face. “Real cute, _gatito_ ,” Gabriel said.

“Sorry. Hard to have good hand-eye when I’m getting head,” Jack said.

“Well it’ll be your turn soon,” he said. Jack just licked his lips with a nod. Jack liked giving head because Gabriel played with his hair and gave him ear scritches when he did. He groaned and tipped his head back some, hand fisting the sheet when Gabriel rubbed against his ass. Then he added some lube and eased his fingers in one at a time, and went back to sucking his dick too. Jack had to cover his mouth again and next to him his tail was swishing back and forth on the bed, a bit bristled from the pleasure of it.

“Gabriel,” he groaned after a few minutes.

“Hmm?” Gabriel looked up at him, dick still in his mouth.

“I’m real close,” he said breathlessly. That was as good a warning as any and Gabriel let him go to finish him with his hand, three fingers deep in his ass at the same time. True to what he’d said he didn’t last much longer and despite his moaning and whining previously Jack’s orgasm was quiet and left him vibrating, a big, stupid, sleepy looking, smile on his face, eyes narrowing in pleasure, tail and ears twitching and his tail sliding up Gabriel’s arm. Gabriel thought Jack looked best post orgasm, and not just because Gabriel had been the one to do it. He just looked so relaxed and happy afterwards and he was always so high key and serious usually.

Gabriel moved up to kiss Jack and Jack immediately wrapped his arms around his shoulders. “Feel good?” he asked Jack who was just purring up a storm.

“Mhm,” Jack nodded and when he opened his pretty blue eyes to look up at Gabriel they were dilated and wanting. He licked his lips and Gabriel chased it with his tongue and bit Jack’s lower lip before just kissing him deeply. “I wanna make you feel good too,” Jack said, voice soft and rough and so very sexy. Gabriel felt his face heat up when Jack said that. It was a pretty romantic thing to say and they were both on board for the whole ‘this isn’t a romance’ lie they were telling each other.

Gabriel rolled off him so Jack could sit up and then immediately lean down again to get him going. He didn’t have to work very hard. Which was always fucking infuriating. Gabriel had to work to get Jack off which could take a little while, all Jack had to do was give him a pretty smile and spend like two minutes giving Gabriel any sort of attention and he was ready to go. Gabriel wasn’t sure if it was because Jack was good at it- which he totally was- or because Gabriel was just easily turned on by whatever Jack did to him. Or maybe a combination of the two. All Gabriel knew was that he got hard and ready pretty quick with Jack.

While Jack was down there Gabriel propped himself up on one hand to run his fingers through Jack’s damp hair and give Jack a bit of scratching behind the ears. It made him purr and if kissing someone who purred was a little weird because of the vibrations getting head by them was amazing. It had led to more than a few early finishes- to Gabriel’s complete horror- but Jack knew when he had to stop by now if they didn’t want to wait for a reset. Jack’s hair was so soft and like his tail his ears were a bit white at the tips with the skinniest dark stripes on them.

Gabriel was trembling a little when Jack pulled off him and sat up again. “You good?”

“Ah… just a sec,” Gabriel swallowed. Jack had been a little over enthusiastic and between that and the purring they’d almost run a shortcut straight to the finish line.

Jack just smirked and leaned over to him, “Alright,” he said and kissed Gabriel lightly on the lips, touching his chest. Gabriel put his arm around his waist to pull him onto his thigh. They ended up just kissing for a bit and Gabriel pushed Jack down onto the bed, Jack’s arms around his neck.

“Still wanna make me feel good?” Gabriel asked him softly. Jack flushed and nodded. Gabriel pulled Jack’s hands off so he could sit back and pull Jack’s legs around his waist. Jack primitively covered his mouth as Gabriel helped ease himself into him and Jack’s eyes lidded with a low, loud, moan. Gabriel leaned over with one arm to hold himself up, the other made sure he was going to stay in. “Yeah, that feels good, don’t you think?” he groaned and Jack’s face was just a solid red tone now. He leaned down and pressed his mouth to Jack’s and around his lips and down his neck so when Jack moaned again he could do so into Gabriel’s neck and shoulder when Gabriel started to move against him. That freed his hands up to wrap around Gabriel’s back and drag white pressure lines down his dark skin.

“Uh huh,” Jack whined and each time Gabriel moved into him he’d squeeze his back. He kept his face pressed against Gabriel’s skin for the most part so he didn’t have to use one hand to cover his mouth.

After a little bit Gabriel sat back some so he could actually see Jack and not just a nice close up view of his very lovely neck and jaw. His ears were pressed out and before he could cover his mouth again Gabriel grabbed both his hands and pressed them into the mattress. He bit down on his lower lip when he moaned and Gabriel liked the way it strained on his neck. He pushed one of Jack’s hands up to be around his neck, the other he switched his grip on so he could thread his fingers with Jack’s. Gabriel pulled Jack’s leg up a bit and Jack whined, biting his lip and squeezing Gabriel’s hand. Gabriel was real hard pressed at that point cause he also looked up at Gabriel with his big, pretty, blue eyes. Gabriel had become a _real_ sucker for those eyes lately, especially when they were as turned on and full of desire as Jack’s got. Just more piling on to the fact that Jack barely had to fucking do anything to Gabriel to get him gone. So he just faked not having to stop so he didn’t finish too quick by stopping to kiss him.

Great plan. Worked great too.

Jack ran his hand along his buzz cut, his kisses light and sweet, fingers tight against Gabriel’s. “You know I don’t mind,” Jack said. Shit. Still a good plan, but totally transparent. “Weren’t you the one who said you were going to enjoy it as much as you wanted to today?” he teased and toyed with Gabriel’s beard. “Or was that all bark?”

“Oh you’re _really_ clever, kitty,” Gabriel said smirked at him.

Jack just grinned a little and pulled Gabriel down so his mouth was near his ear. Gabriel totally blushed, even feeling his ears heat up, when Jack said, “I like you can’t help yourself with me,” like a secret. Not that he was wrong but he did try to take longer than five minutes like he was a grown ass man and not a teenager. “And it’s just a good excuse for you to fuck me a lot,” he said, still into Gabriel’s ear and it did bad things to him. He grinned in satisfaction at the half gasp half moan in his ear Jack gave when he started moving again.

After that Jack was right, Gabriel really couldn’t help himself. He did try to pull out but Jack had his legs around his waist and when Gabriel looked at him they both flushed. Alright. Guess they were doing it like this this time. First time for everything. Gabriel was not about to complain he was allowed to fuck Jack raw and not have to pull out. He buried his face in Jack’s hair when he came, mouth open in a deep, satisfied groan punctuated by the sound of his thighs against Jack’s ass.

Gabriel was out of breath when they were done and Jack, the prick, looked so smug. With a huff Gabriel rolled onto the bed and they lay side by side on the narrow bed. Twin sized beds were not conducive to having two people laying on them by any stretch of the imagination unless you were prepared to be smothered. Gabriel caught his breath and he felt Jack’s tail flicking against his side.

They just lay there for a few minutes and Jack rolled over, propping himself up to look down at Gabriel. His ears were up in that cute way they were when he was looking at Gabriel like he saw him better when they were pointed straight at them. “You really put the ‘super’ in super soldier, huh?” Jack teased him.

“Oh fuck off, _gatito_ ,” Gabriel rolled his eyes at him. Jack’s response was to kiss his face and lips with his soft mouth until Gabriel moved around some so he could pull Jack on top of him. Jack held his face in both hands and continued to give him sweet kisses and it felt wonderful. They ended up having sex again a few more time because of just that because Jack could make Gabriel do whatever he wanted and they both knew it.

They only took a break to shower, which took a while because by then Jack was very messy, and head to the mess for dinner. Ana found them while they ate in silence. Neither of them liked to talk and eat. Just sit, eat your damn food and move on. “Hey, boys,” she said with her warm smile and put a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder when she came over. “Where were you all day?”

“Someone looking for us?” Jack asked.

“Nah, they were looking for Gabby here,” she gave Gabriel’s shoulder a fond shake. “Told ‘em if they wanted to find Gabriel they should just find you,” she told Jack.

“Who was looking for me?”

“One of the brass,” she said. “Wanted to talk to you about a mission or something, I dunno,” she shrugged. “They just said it was important.”

“Meaning it probably isn’t,” Gabriel rolled his eyes.

“I won’t argue that,” she chuckled and finally slid into the seat next to him. “But what were two up to? Hmm?”

“Yoga,” Jack said and Gabriel laughed, ended up choking on his food. He beat his chest a little to not die and Ana gave him a concerned looked. That was certainly a word for it. Maybe for Jack, it was.

“I didn’t know you guys did yoga,” Ana said.

“Yeah. Gabriel actually got me into it,” Jack said with a shitbag smirk and Gabriel made himself drink something so he didn’t choke again.

“Really?” she looked at Gabriel critically. “That doesn’t sound right.”

“No, he’s really into it,” Jack said. He was saying it all with a straight face. Gabriel didn’t know how he was doing it since he was trying not to laugh his ass off. “Right, Gabriel?”

Gabriel cleared his throat a little. “Yeah. I said I’d only show him to shut him up though, he kept asking about it.”

“Well, I’m glad we have even more in common now. You should come to this class I go to sometime,” Ana said.

Gabriel wasn’t sure if Ana was being serious or if she knew they were full of shit. It was hard to tell with her most of the time. “Maybe,” Jack said. “Gabriel’s gonna be away for a while so you’ll have to miss out on his perfect execution of downward dog-

Gabriel couldn’t stop himself anymore. He laughed. He laughed so hard he had to put his head down into his arms on the table. “What’s with him?” Ana asked Jack.

“He’s just immature,” Jack scoffed. Gabriel didn’t even care. This was the most ridiculous conversation he’d been involved in.

“Well, I knew that,” Ana scoffed.

Gabriel wheezed and huffed to catch his breath before sitting up and looking at Ana. “No, but really we were banging the entire time,” he said, deadpan, just to see what the reactions would be. Ana knew they did things but just like the others they didn’t go around talking about since so many people had had to leave their loved ones behind. It was just rude to bring up that your significant other was here with you. Or whatever the fuck Jack was.

Across the table Jack turned red and put his hand over his face, his ears going down as he sighed. Ana just stared at Gabriel a few seconds. “I prefer to think you’re a yoga enthusiast,” she said, her cheeks did turn a bit red but nothing like Jack’s new tomato face.

“You’re the worst,” Jack groaned, still covering his face.

“I know,” Gabriel said, giving Jack a smirk.

“Well… huh. This is awkward. You going to go find that CO looking for you?” Ana asked Gabriel.

“Probably. Not that it’s super important. They’re probably just impatient and want to start the mission early cause they’re nervous. Not really worried about doing a backflip for them right now.”

“I feel that,” Ana said. “How long you gone for?”

“A while. How long is still up for debate.”

“Hopefully not too long,” Ana said. “The longer you’re out the more dangerous it usually is.”

“Yeah. But that’s why they called me for it,” Gabriel said proudly. He got shit done and got it done quick and well and without hiccups. You needed something delicate handled, you sent Gabriel Reyes.

“Isn’t he humble?” Jack asked Ana sarcastically. “It’s a miracle he isn’t running everything with how amazing he is.”

Ana laughed a little. “Sounds like someone’s got a case of the sour grapes, kitty cat,” Gabriel sneered at him. Jack just rolled his eyes at him. Under the table, Jack kicked him in the foot. “Uh oh, kitty’s got some claws.” Jack’s ears went back in annoyance.

“Be nice, Gabby,” Ana tutted at him. “Or wait to claw him up after I’m gone so I could say I didn’t see anything and just found him in the ditch like that.” She got up. “I’ll see you later Jack. Gabriel… probably not till you get back.”

“Bye, Ana,” he said.

“I’ll leave you two to your… yoga recovery,” she said and Jack again blushed, Gabriel felt his ears warm as well. She just gave them a wink and with what could only be described as a hair flip walked off.

“How the fuck does she do that?” Jack asked.

“Cause she’s Ana Amari,” Gabriel said like it could and did answer the question in a suitable fashion.

Jack didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “Fair enough,” he agreed.

They finished their dinner and did end up back in Jack’s room but more to laze about than anything. Gabriel was tired from all the fun they’d had and he needed to use tomorrow to prepare for the long mission including pack his gear, do the briefing, which would take a while, and do any last minute things like call his mother or get some real sleep. They were leaving at oh-five-hundred the day after next and it was going to be a real fun, long, flight across the Atlantic to Central America. He just ended up cuddling against Jack while he used his tablet, laying on the bed while Jack sat. He peeked at what he was doing at one point and saw he was _still_ looking at that tail docking shit.

He didn’t say anything about it. Jack could do whatever he wanted. It was his body and if he didn’t want his tail anymore there was no actual reason he needed to keep it. It was useless like your appendix which had been removed during SEP where they got their injections to avoid unforeseen complications later. But Gabriel liked his tail. Especially when Jack wasn’t paying attention to it and it’d drape itself over Gabriel’s arm or thigh. Like it was doing now actually.

Absently Gabriel started fiddling with it and it started to move a bit more. Took Jack five minutes to realize his tail was playing with Gabriel without him the wiser to it. He only realized it when he started purring because Gabriel was rubbing his back where he his tail joined the rest of his back. He looked behind himself at it, “What are you doing?” he asked it like it had an actual mind of its own and could answer him back. That made Gabriel chuckle. He made it lie flat but it still twitched, the tip flicking back and forth when Gabriel ran it between two fingers. “I thought you said you were tired,” Jack teased him when Gabriel made to wrap his arm around Jack’s waist.

“Yeah, tired of you sitting there and not being down here with me,” Gabriel grumbled.

“I think you’ll live,” Jack said and if Gabriel still had hair he’d have ruffled it, instead he ended up just rubbing his head.

Pouting Gabriel sat up to wind himself around Jack, head on his shoulder. Jack tapped away from what he was looking at to something else so Gabriel wouldn’t see. “I will, but under protest,” he said and nuzzled the side of his head and into his hair. It smelled nice and Jack’s ears stood up, the fur prickling when Gabriel nibbled on them a little. Then they went out, enjoying the gentle attention, especially with Gabriel’s arms around his waist. Jack held out for a few minutes before putting his tablet on the bedside table and focusing on Gabriel, which was what he wanted the entire time. He was gonna be gone a while, he wanted attention damnit. Least Jack could do.

They did end up having sex one or three or something times again before falling asleep that night. In the morning Jack was nicely wedged against him, practically under him and if he was awake Gabriel didn’t know and didn’t bother to check. He just liked watching him sleep, comfortable and content, his ears relaxed. Gabriel knew he wasn’t still asleep when he snuggled closer and started purring. They didn’t have to be up about for a little while for their duties on base so didn’t bother getting up.

Then Jack opened his eyes, yawned, and rolled off the bed. Gabriel frowned after him as he went to the bathroom and waited for him to come back. After enough time had passed that Gabriel was sure he should have been finished on the can and not come back out he also got out, throwing the covers off annoyed. Jack was showering and while that made sense why it had taken him so long it did annoy him Jack hadn’t invited him to join him like he had last night. Of course it didn’t occur to him that it was because Gabriel hadn’t exactly been conducive to actually showering last night but that was besides the point.

If Jack was surprised when Gabriel joined him he didn’t show it. “Just so there’s no misunderstanding; I’m actually trying to get clean here,” Jack said. He looked over his shoulder at Gabriel, “And you’re a real messy dog.”

Gabriel scoffed. “That’s like half the reason you like me,” he said. Then he pressed up against Jack’s back, his ear moving towards the sound of his voice, “And you’re the one who wanted me to make you all messy.” He felt more than saw Jack get all flustered and red faced but he couldn’t say it wasn’t true.

Gabriel did make an attempt to ‘behave’ or whatever but it was certifiably impossible. Before it was over he had Jack against the wall, his thigh between his legs. Jack had his hand around Gabriel’s cock as he grinded against Gabriel’s leg. His other hand he had grabbing the back of Gabriel’s neck so they were close. Jack’s face was all flushed and his breath was hot on Gabriel’s face. Now and then he’d press his mouth against Jack’s but he was more flustered now than when they weren’t in the shower and he kept pulling away to breathe. He groaned a little, biting his lower lip when Gabriel grabbed his thighs and hiked them around his waist.

He nuzzled Jack’s neck and felt Jack’s fingers dig into his shoulders almost painfully when he started to work himself into him. Jack hissed and he stopped. He waited and Jack nodded against his shoulder when it was okay. There was just enough residual slick left from yesterday for it to work but Jack still held onto Gabriel’s back hard, his nails even digging in a bit. “Should I stop?” Gabriel asked.

“No,” Jack croaked.

Instead he just waited, kissing along Jack’s neck and jaw and using one hand to run through his wet hair. He knew it was okay once Jack started purring since he only did so when he was at ease enough around anyone to do so. He whined when Gabriel started to move and dug his fingers into his skin but when a soft little moan popped out of his mouth Gabriel knew it wasn’t a bad thing. Gabriel had to hold up both of his legs while they did this since Jack was just holding one right now. Gabriel didn’t exactly blame him for just going along for the ride since he was absolutely not expecting to get fucked in the shower.

It was one of the few times Jack didn’t need a lot of coaxing to come. Jack managed to get his hand down between them and jerk himself off while Gabriel fucked him and Gabriel was actually so surprised Jack finished so quickly he stopped for a few seconds. Usually it took a lot more work than that. Gabriel would have to remember this. Once he was over the miracle that was Jack not taking ten years to get off he went back to what he was doing and enjoying the way Jack was trying to not be too loud but also not let go of Gabriel.

At the very least he was nice about when he finally finished and pulled out. Jack immediately let go of him with one hand and helped Gabriel finish with his hand to the point Gabriel just let him do it. Gabriel flushed a little because Jack was looking at him the entire time he was getting him off and when he groaned Jack kissed him, swallowing his moan like he could capture it in his own mouth. It was pretty hot and Gabriel pressed Jack firmly against the wall tile, still keeping his legs around his waist.

When they parted they were both short of breath and they’d succeeded in both having sex and running nearly all the hot water out. Gabriel kissed him one more time before letting him down and helped Jack clean up and that went by fairly quickly since the water was starting to turn cold.

They got out of the shower and Gabriel dried himself off and put a towel around his waist. Jack had two, one to dry his hair the other for the rest of him. Gabriel helped with his wet hair, making sure to be gentle around the ears so they didn’t get folded and even did the insides. Jack purred the entire time, eyes lidded a bit from the attention. Gabriel kissed him again once his hair was drier and starting to get fluffy, using the towel around Jack’s head to pull him close.

They started when someone knocked on one of the doors that didn’t lead to Jack’s room. “Hey, whoever’s in there finish up, I gotta shit,” Santiago, one of Jack’s suite mates, called.

“Just a sec,” Jack yelled back and shoved Gabriel out of the bathroom so he could make sure the shower didn’t have any evidence of what they’d done in there. Jack unlocked the other doors and joined Gabriel in his room. Gabriel was sitting in the chair at the desk rubbing his head and wondering how much trouble he’d get Jack into if he monopolized another day of his time. Jack had had the day off yesterday and Gabriel had leave of duties for the days leading up to his mission, but not today. Jack came into the room and picked up their clothes on the floor and threw them into the laundry bag before getting fresh clothes. He tossed some to Gabriel too but he was so distracted they ended up hitting him in the face.

“Hey!” he complained.

“I literally went ‘hey Gabriel, catch’. Not my fault you weren’t paying attention,” Jack said as he pulled on his casual uniform. Gabriel followed his lead even if he needed to get to his own room for some real clothes because Jack’s pants were impossibly tight on him since he had no ass to speak of. Shirt fit just fine though despite the fact that Jack was shaped like a damn Dorito. He pulled his hoodie on over it since it was the least offensive smelling thing he’d brought over with him and it was long enough so you couldn’t see how tight the pants he was wearing were since it didn’t leave a lot to the imagination. Gabriel couldn’t even sit down.

“Wanna join me for breakfast, or do you have stuff to do?” Jack asked him.

“I do have stuff to do, but I’ll join you. After I stop at my room,” he tugged at the crotch of the pants some. Didn’t do much good. “How do you fucking wear these? They’re so tight,” he complained.

“What?” Jack asked. He looked down at his own pants. “They fit fine.”

“That’s just because you have a small ass,” Gabriel said. God, they were really uncomfortable.

Jack flushed a little but still got back at Gabriel in a way he couldn’t have the last word on which was impressive, “You liked it well enough earlier.”

“I’ll meet you at the mess,” he said instead. He had to walk slightly bow legged to not jam up his dick and balls and Jack laughed at him as he did. Gabriel just slouched, pulling the front of his hoodie down and Jack locked up after them. At least Gabriel’s quarters was just down the hall. He shuffled down there to get into his own clothes. He didn’t mind tight pants but those had been positively suffocating.

He met Jack at the mess and they had breakfast. A few of Gabriel’s recon team showed up to give him a good-natured harassment before their mission. After breakfast Jack said he had to get ready for another day of training their platoon so Gabriel was forced to go do what he’d planned and not bother Jack for the day again. He packed a bag of gear, weighing it all to make sure he had a good ratio of important items, shotgun shells, other ammo, grenades, and enough extra room for rations. That took a good few hours to get everything to fit and be as light as possible with Gabriel spending at least ten minutes staring at a straight razor which was only a few ounces in weight and if he wanted to bring it with him to help control his hair and beard before deciding no. It wasn’t worth the extra weight, even just a few ounces. There was a lot of stuff like that. Stuff that would have made sense to bring and wasn’t too heavy but he couldn’t convince himself to carry a single-use item.

After that he called his mother. He didn’t tell her what he was doing, just that he’d be away for a while and wouldn’t be able to call so to not freak out that he was dead unless someone came to her home and told her. As usual she asked when he was coming to visit and if he was bringing ‘that nice white boy you always tell me about’ which Gabriel just rolled his eyes about. The call was fairly short and he was glad when he could hang up. Not that he didn’t love his mamá but she could just talk forever if he let her and he still needed to finish getting ready.

Once he’d finally said goodbye to his mother he showered and went to get his hair cut. He had it trimmed down to a regulation buzz cut again and had his facial hair taken off too. They were going to be out in the Mexican jungle for the better part of a month. He didn’t want to deal with wild facial hair and not be able to trim it at least once a week. It’d grow back. He met with his team after that. They went over the mission again in agonizing detail which took up the rest of the day and the early evening. There was only one thing to do after that.

Gabriel knocked on Jack’s door this time. He didn’t want to go inside. Jack answered the door and behind him Gabriel could see Ana in the room, reading something, enjoying the view of the last traces of sunset through Jack’s window. Jack looked honestly surprised to see him. “Hey, didn’t think you’d stop by again.”

“I’m just full of surprises, hmm?” Gabriel asked him.

“Or something,” Jack rolled his eyes. “What’s up?”

“Nothing really. I just… came to say goodbye.”

“Oh,” he watched Jack’s ears move down then back up again like he realized what he was doing. “Well, it isn’t like you’re not coming back. Don’t say it like that,” he gave Gabriel a look.

“Yeah. But I’ll be gone for a while. Figured I should give a proper goodbye to my co platoon leader. Seemed reasonable.”

Jack gave him a look where Jack knew he was full of shit. Just so full of shit. “How considerate. I didn’t realize you were such a nice guy, Gabriel,” he teased him.

“C’mon, I’m trying not to be an asshole here.”

“Oh? That what you’re doing? Amazing. I should take notes.”

Gabriel just gave him an annoyed look. “Really?”

“I’ll be here when you get back,” Jack said. “And since you’re already looking at the omnium I’m sure we’ll get right into how we’re gonna rip it open. Just like always.”

“Sounds good.”

They stood there a second. It was awkward. Pretty awkward. Then Jack leaned out the door and kissed him. It was a kiss that tasted like the lie of ‘I don’t care about you’ that left a knot in Gabriel’s stomach he really wished wasn’t there. “I’ll miss you,” Jack said, “You better get some sleep.” Gabriel nodded a little and then Jack closed the door. Gabriel stood there a few more seconds feeling like the biggest idiot on Earth before heading to his room to do as Jack suggested and get some sleep before his three am wake up call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really loving all the feedback; even if it's mostly just sobbing on my shoulder. I'm here to tell you, you should keep doing that and leaving a comment if you enjoy the fic :3


	5. Of Wisdom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *chanting* almost done almost done almost done almost done

The only change when Gabriel left was that Jack had more work. It was annoying. At the very least he had Ana but she didn’t have the rank or authority he did over his platoon. He also couldn’t and didn’t let her see him get frustrated and pissed off at his men, especially the new ones, for being slow, stupid, or otherwise frustrating. The truth was that while Gabriel had the reputation for barking strict or stern orders at their men, he very rarely actually got angry. Jack got angry. He just never had to deal with it because Gabriel was around to do the yelling because Gabriel _liked_ looking scary. He liked making recruits piss their pants only to find out later he was the nicer of the two. Jack was a perfectionist, Gabriel was not, and was good at tempering Jack’s expectations of others.

So when those others couldn’t live up to Jack’s expectations of what he thought they could accomplish he got frustrated and quietly pissed off. But he couldn’t show it. Like Gabriel, he had a reputation, and he liked his reputation. He didn’t yell to scold, he didn’t punish without good reason, he did fly off the handle. He was calm, kept himself relatively composed, and if anything kept Gabriel from scaring the hell out of everyone.

Usually, it wasn’t a problem. Times he got mad he could just step back from it and let Gabriel do some more of the work. If that didn’t work there was always a rough fuck late that night that would mellow him out. It was only once Gabriel was gone for more than a few days that he realized how much he relied on Gabriel and needed him just to not turn into something ugly he didn’t like about himself. When Gabriel wasn’t around Jack reminded himself of his step dad and that was about as good a balm to not act out as letting Gabriel run the show.

Days his men failed in ways that frustrated him he’d just grit his teeth and put on a grimace of a smile. Say some things that sounded good, shit he’d said before. Then once training was over to the day he’d go beat the shit out of a punching bag to the point others in the gym got nervous.

It wasn’t every day. Just some days. By the end of the last two weeks of training up their recruits, Jack was very glad it was over and just wanted to pass into a coma for a few days to calm down. Which wasn’t possible of course. He had other things to do and since his platoon was retrained he had his old work schedule back. Much less stressful than training. Didn’t trigger his perfectionism nearly as much either. Was basically a desk job and he only spent a few days out of the week making sure his men were staying in proper form instead of every day but it helped with his anger.

Of course, once he had a boring job most days again he had more time for his mind to drift. Only after the last two weeks of intensive training was over did Jack actually have a real chance to miss Gabriel. And it was weird and sharp how much he missed him. He couldn’t even ask after him. Or he could but all he’d get was, ‘the mission is proceeding according to plan’ which wasn’t even a little helpful. Some days he’d daydream that he’d get off shift and Gabriel would be back from his mission. They were nice and very distracting. Sometimes to the point someone would be talking to him and he’d completely miss what they were saying.

Like right now actually. He blinked and focused on the soldier in front of him who was speaking. He hadn’t heard a thing he’d said. “Sorry, what’d you say?” Jack asked.

They didn’t even twitch at the fact Jack had been ignoring them. He’d been looking at a screen like he was focused on it. Really he’d been thinking about what the hell had possessed Gabriel to shave his face. He had more of a baby face than Jack had anticipated. No wonder he wore facial hair.

“Under-secretary-General from the UN is looking for you, sir. Said it was extremely important and you report to them immediately.”

“Alright,” he said slowly. What a General would want with him Jack had no idea but he wasn’t about to argue. He didn’t deal with anyone above the Colonel at his base and that was only rarely. Usually, it was just his Major. “They say where I should report?”

“Command, sir.”

“Alright. Thank you, sergeant,” he said, finally taking note of the rank on their collar. They nodded and left.

Jack was grateful for something new to do and not sit here looking at this shit. He got up, cracked his neck, and went to find the General looking for him. He was seen immediately, which never happened. The General had a little closet for an office. Not so much a slight as just a temporary measure. “Jack Morrison,” they stood when he saluted them after closing the door. “I’ve heard good things,” and she shook Jack’s hand.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said.

“Sit. I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve called you here and I’m running a tight schedule so we’ll cut right to the chase.” Jack sat in the offered chair. Well, that was a nice change of pace. “My name is Gabrielle Adawe, I’ve been tasked with filling a roster for a new UN sanctioned initiative called Overwatch. Maybe you’ve heard of it?”

Jack took a second. Boris seemed to actually want an answer. “Yes, ma’am, I recall,” he said. That was the department that supplied the biotics that saved Gabriel’s life at the Giza omnium.

“Good. Well, it’s finally getting off the ground. You’re on the list, Morrison.”

“The list, ma’am?”

“Yes. The very short list for our starting operatives. We want to bring you onto Overwatch.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but what exactly _is_ Overwatch?”

“A fair question. Put simply it’s the UN’s intent to create a group of highly skilled, highly effective, unit for omnic suppression. We’re interested in the best militaries from all over the world have to offer and bring them together to create a super group if you will. To act as champions, if you want to get a bit medieval, against the omnic threat.”

“So basically, if I understand you correctly sir, you want me to join a superhero team.”

Gabrielle laughed, funny, she didn’t really have the type of face he’d expect to laugh at a joke like that. Too serious and dower. “If you’d like to think of it like that in a modern sense, yes, I guess so,” he said.

“And what? We’re just the UN’s speartip? No offense sir, but I do that already in the position I’m in. I don’t see how this would be any different.”

“Speartip? Oh no, Morrison. You misunderstand. This isn’t like how we’ve been asking you to run suicide missions to open omniums because no one else but you would volunteer. This is an initiative to act as the UN’s hammer and bannerman. We want you not to run missions we’re surprised you come back from, we want you to run missions to smash our enemies down to their computer chips with the best soldiers the world has to offer and the full authority of the UN behind your actions.”

Jack hated the way Gabrielle put his platoon’s initiative as constant suicide missions. They had a way higher survival rate than other omnium busting units but that didn’t mean it was suicidal. But he did like what Gabrielle had in mind as well. “So I wouldn’t be busting omniums anymore?”

“Only if you wanted to. What do you say?”

Jack immediately thought of Gabriel. “Not that I don’t appreciate the offer, sir, but I don’t really play well with others. Could I know who else is on the list before I make a decision? A platoon that doesn't get along falls apart under pressure and that’s how they die.”

Gabrielle must have been ready for the question because she slid a paper across the desk to him. Jack picked it up and scanned the sheet. Reinhardt Wilhelm was on the list, so was Ana Amari, Torbjörn Lindholm, and half a dozen other people who were making names for themselves during the Crisis and Jack recognized all of them. They were the best the world had to offer in terms of combat, technologic know-how, or just general badassery. The list was in no particular order but he did see his name and right under it was Gabriel Reyes. He looked up at Gabrielle, “Reyes is on the list too?”

“It did not escape our notice that the world’s best omnium buster unit was led in two parts, Morrison. We aren’t about to ruin a good thing.”

“You have any of these people already signed up?” he asked.

“Lindholm has already agreed, as have both Ziegler’s and Wilhelm. Amari has refused unless you join, she said she likes working with you too much to join unless you do. The others I haven’t gotten to yet.”

That Ana had refused to join without him was an honest surprise. He knew they were friends but he hadn’t been aware just how close she felt about their friendship or how much she respected him. He looked down at the list, his eyes hovering around his and Gabriel’s names. This was the promotion they always joked about. This was it, right here. The chance to go on, do something bigger and better than just being the spear tip you broke off after getting it into a body. He had no doubt in his mind that if he said yes that when Gabriel came back from his mission that he’d agree too if he knew Jack had joined the Overwatch initiative. And Ana would be there too, and all these other people who were practically bigger than reality deemed possible. And to think Jack was being considered to stand with some of them.

He’d come a long way from just a kid in Indiana.

He looked back up at Gabrielle. “You got me, ma’am. I’ll join your superhero fighting team,” he smirked.

That just amused her. “Alright then. Overwatch welcomes you aboard. We’ll call for you once final preparations have been made. I suggest you pack you stuff.”

—

A week and a half later Jack got confirmation of his transfer to Overwatch. His platoon howled and complained but also congratulated him up and down on the promotion. Technically Gabriel still led their platoon even without him but Jack didn’t tell them Gabriel would probably be joining Overwatch too. No need to break their hearts.

Instead, the day before Jack was supposed to leave they dragged Jack off base after the end of their various work shifts and got shit faced. They toasted to Jack’s promotion and were rowdy and obnoxious but didn’t cause too much of a scene. Jack himself drank with everyone but it didn’t do a lot to him. Between being an animi and going through SEP he had a horribly high tolerance for alcohol. He was buzzed at the end and acted like the responsible platoon leader, making sure his men got back to base safely without making fools of themselves or passing out on the sidewalk. Once everyone had been shoved off to their bunks Jack went to his own room. By the time he got there he practically felt sober, and not really that tired despite the hour.

It was like the day before vacation as a child. Jack was too wired to sleep and stayed awake late into the night. For a while, he paced but that got him nowhere. He tried working but he couldn’t focus. In the end, he just got undressed and tried to go to bed. He ended up laying awake staring up at the ceiling. He hadn’t realized till now that this was by far the longest time Gabriel had been gone on a solo mission. It hadn’t occurred to him that he’d miss Gabriel so much either. He tried closing his eyes but sleep slipped away like water through his cupped hands. He tried thinking of nothing but it was difficult. He tried thinking of something that could distract him instead. Somehow he ended up thinking about corn and he got so mad he was seeing cornfields behind his eyelids he opened his eyes out of pure hatred. He’d seen enough god damn corn growing up in Indiana to last him a lifetime and then some. He didn’t need to see corn in his dreams too.

He settled on the cliche of counting sheep. He wasn’t sure if it worked or maybe he was just so disgusted with himself he’d tried to think of corn as a way to calm himself that he went to sleep out of spite to not accidentally think about corn anymore. At least he didn’t dream about corn.

Sometime in the middle of the night, he wasn’t sure when he heard his door open. Had he forgotten to lock it? Regardless, it woke him and he rubbed his eyes, pushing himself up a little to get a look around. “Hey,” he heard Gabriel’s voice but couldn’t see where he was in the darkness. Then he caught the slice of his teeth as his lips pulled back in a smile. He was by Jack’s bed.

Jack blinked blearily. “You’re back?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m back,” Gabriel said. “I missed you,” he leaned down and kissed Jack’s sleepy mouth. “I missed you so much,” but to Jack’s ears it sounded like ‘I love you’.

“I missed you too,” Jack said. Gabriel kissed him again and ran his fingers through his hair and cupped his face.

Then Gabriel was on top of him, naked. When did he get naked? Vaguely Jack could remember him undressing but only if he worried about it. He didn’t worry about it. He was more interested in Gabriel being naked on top of him and kissing him and touching him. It was sort of overwhelming in the best way possible. For a moment it was like Gabriel had too many hands, and his arms moved in strange ways touching Jack’s chest, sides, legs, arms, face, hair, and even had his hands clasped in Jack’s all at once. Jack moaned and for once didn’t feel like he should maybe be a little quiet about it. Who the fuck cared? Not him, and not Gabriel who was too busy kissing his neck and chest to worry about a little noise. He always said he liked that Jack was so… vocal.

Maybe because he hadn’t woken up all the way but things seemed to move fast and slow. The next thing knew he had his legs around Gabriel’s waist and Gabriel was inside him. It felt amazing and when Jack looked up at him Gabriel was looking down. Though it was still dark he could see Gabriel’s eyes, hot and looking right at him. It looked like Gabriel was saying something but it was so quiet Jack couldn’t hear.

“What was that?” he asked.

It felt like Gabriel was touching him everywhere again and Jack shivered all over when Gabriel said, just loud enough to hear, “Mine.” It made him blush deeply. “My Jack.” Jack leaned up a bit to kiss him and Gabriel’s mouth tasted like nothing. Jack closed his eyes as he kissed Gabriel, his hips working against Jack’s ass, and suffered the bliss of the entire moment.

When he opened his eyes again there was soft morning light coming in through his blinds. He was alone and had a hard on so stiff it hurt from how he was laying on it. Jack blinked awake and sat up, rubbing one eye and looking down at his lap. Then his eyes closed tiredly. “Alright, I got it,” he grumbled to himself. He hadn’t jerked off in a while, really since Gabriel had been gone, preferring to just work until he was exhausted, but looked like that had caught up to him if he was having such a vivid wet dream about Gabriel showing up in the night and fucking him so good he felt empty when he woke up.

He leaned back on his pillow with a yawn and reached down to grab his cock. His ears twitched and just that little bit of attention made his toes flare. If nothing else his wet dream gave him great jerk off fodder. He just ran the dream over in his head as he worked his hand over his cock, paying a bit of special attention to the head. He ran his free hand up his chest and imagined it was Gabriel’s and vaguely wondered what the fuck his subconscious had been on about with Gabriel’s weird hundred ghost hands on him. That would have to be something he thought about later though because he liked the idea of it, of Gabriel being able to touch him anywhere and all over.

He did have to end up covering his mouth around a loud groan as he thought of Gabriel fucking him. He was too impatient for lube to finger himself but he still knew the feeling. Of having something opening him up and moving in and out, sometimes roughly, sometimes with more gentle and ease than you’d expect out of a guy like Gabriel who didn’t have a delicate bone in his body even if he tried. The feeling of Gabriel pressed down against him or behind him. The sound of his breathing and the hot feeling of his breath on his face. He gave a weak little moan when he finally did come from that and moved his hand rapidly up and down along his shaft to get it all out.

Jack lay on his bed, short of breath, a splatter of cum on his chest, and just had his eyes closed thinking about Gabriel. His Gabriel. He really wanted Gabriel to come back soon and hoped he was safe, wherever he was.

Once he’d caught his breath Jack opened his eyes and got out of bed. He went to go shower off before he got his stuff together. He’d already packed up his things so it was just a matter of getting everything out. Transport would be waiting for him to take him to a new base out in Switzerland. When Ana had heard he’d joined Overwatch she just said she’d see him there and had returned to Egypt for her own confirmation and transfer processes. Jack could only guess the Egyptian military was only giving Ana up under great pain since they hadn’t wanted to give her over to the UN in the first place. He wondered what Ana had done to arrange it since he didn’t doubt Ana had done _something_.

He was walking down the hall with his stuff when he passed Gabriel’s room and stopped. Feeling silly but doing it anyway he went into Gabriel’s room. It was military spotless, bed made, everything in its place. He had pictures of his mother and sisters on his desk which Jack always thought was nice. Jack opened his closet. He had his fancy uniform in there as well as some neatly pressed shirts for when he needed to look nice and perfectly ironed trousers too. Gabriel liked- and got away with wearing it because he was fucking Lieutenant Gabriel Reyes who opened omniums like they were sardine cans- hooded jackets. He had about five of them, all black. Jack stole one and pulled it on. Was a bit baggy on him since Gabriel was the slightest bit wider than him on the chest and shoulders but that was fine. He smiled to himself, ears twitching and tail curling inside his pant leg, because it still smelled like Gabriel. He took it off and rolled it up to put into his bag. Then he left Gabriel’s room. If Gabriel noticed when he came back and wanted it back he’d have to come to the Overwatch base and get it from Jack.

—

The first few weeks were fairly routine. They’d arrived on the other side of the destroyed Mexico City and made their way to Monto Tlaloc on foot. They scouted out potential insertion points and routes to take to attack the omnium which loomed up on the side of the mountain like some sort of eastern European castle that belonged to some scary old white guy who ate children or something. Thanks to the clearcutting of not just Monto Tlaloc but also all the rest of the jungle in and around Mexico City there wasn’t a lot blocking out the omnium or its huge wall. Every few days they reported back to home base on what they’d discovered or other information.

Then, after almost three weeks, they’d headed for the omnium to investigate the area near the wall. They gave it a good distance. With all the tall trees cut down all there was was ground clutter to take cover in. They still respected the mile radius that was declared hostile territory by the omnium. They scouted the entire circumference of the omnium, studying the wall through binoculars, trying to find a weakness. There was very little places to hide and the omnics that controlled the area kept the mile no man’s land clear of most vegetation.

The odd part about the wall was that it was completely smooth and didn’t appear to have any external means to see outside itself. No cameras, no peek holes. Nothing. It was just a huge, wooden and steel, wall of a nearly uniform smoothness and texture. It was, somehow, incredibly intimidating. Even more so than the omnium itself. The wall was so hideously unnatural, especially being made of wood, which itself was inherently nonuniform for the most part. The pale wall looming over them when they went to rest in the city made some of his team upset, agitated, and he heard a few of them muttering to themselves about it when they returned to camp. Gabriel didn’t chastise them for it. The wall scared him too in a way. It was a strange nightmare thing that only the mind of a machine could contemplate and then execute. Up till then, everything was fine. The mission had been going exactly to plan other than everyone feeling extremely turned off by the wall.

Then the shoe dropped.

It happened when a little drone, the only sign of omnic activity they’d seen since they’d arrived, appeared over the air in the sky above the no man’s land. Gabriel knew what they’d done as soon as it appeared. Someone had, accidentally, moved into the no man’s land. They all stayed low and backed away while the drone flew around the area of the no man’s land. It knew, roughly, where they were. Gabriel watched it flit about, then it turned when there was a thud from the omnium itself. Gabriel braced for the worst. He spoke quietly over the comms for everyone to scatter on his signal.

But to everyone’s great surprise the thud wasn’t evil. At least not as first. Gabriel watched in absolute confusion as a figure he could barely see climbed up on top of the wall from the inside. He pulled out his binoculars and looked at what the hell it was. It was an omnic. Humanoid, sort of. It had four legs in a semi centaur shape. It had climbed up to the top of the wall and then dropped down onto the outside.

Distracted by the strange occurrence Gabriel missed when the drone flew over him and his men until he heard the whirl of its rotor blades. He looked up from his binoculars slowly up at the drone which looked down at them with its optical eye. That was when the actual nightmare began.

“Run,” Gabriel had said over the comms.

He didn’t even bother to look to see if his men obeyed. He just took off, sprinting away from the omnium as fast as he could through the ground clutter. Not a moment later he heard what sounded like muffled land mines. He looked back and saw his men had gotten up and ran but also that behind them in the mile long no man’s land around the omnium the ground was erupting with buried omnics. He saw some that looked like Hounds and others that were humanoid or ones that were bipedal. He only saw them for a second before he turned back forward and ran for all he was worth down the mountain. If he could get to the city it would be relatively safe.

That was how he got to where he was now. Holed up in a half-destroyed bodega with a few of his men. Outside the city was crawling with omnics. They’d woken them all up and now they were being hunted. Gabriel didn’t know what happened to his other men. He’d shut off all communications when the omnics had traced them by it. They were on their own and for all Gabriel knew they were dead. For now, the mission was to hide and then when the omnics got bored to get back to their transport and get the hell out of there.

They waited all day and long into the night, sleeping in shifts. The omnics didn’t find them but they didn’t stop looking for them either. Gabriel caught maybe an hour of sleep before daybreak. They couldn’t stay here much longer. They had no food other than some granola bars and only a canteen of water each. At the very least they had guns but it was them versus an army of omnics, the odds weren’t good.

Odds be damned they had to move. They had to get to the transport, maybe meet up with some of the others, and get out or they were all dead. They waited until there were no omnics around for a while before leaving the bodega. Gabriel took point and they made their slow way across the city.

They were only three klicks out when a drone crossed their path. Gabriel didn’t shoot it, he just grabbed it and spiked in into the ground, smashing it, and took off running. Didn’t matter. War omnics appeared at the next cross street. Gabriel dropped and rolled to the side of the road in the attempt to find some cover. The omnics opened fire on them and Gabriel heard one of his men yell out before falling. Gabriel managed to make it behind something and blind fired around it to lay down any sort of cover fire with his rifle.

The noise attracted, even more, omnics and he saw a pack of Hounds skid around the block down and start to skip towards them. Their humanoid heads were horribly disfigured from the saw blades jammed into where their mouth and face would be. Gabriel self-consciously touched his abdomen where they’d sliced through him a few weeks ago. There was no Jack and that magic sunlight in a can to save him from a Hound’s blades today. He turned gun from the omnics in front of him to shoot down the Hounds. He knocked three over.

Across the way he heard more than saw someone else die. He only glanced over to see who. “Shit,” he whispered. “Sorry, Morgan,” he crossed himself. Morgan had been a veteran in his platoon even when he and Jack had joined. In the last year and a half they’d busted four omniums, one of them twice. Now he was dead. What a fucking waste.

More omnics were coming. He could hear them and when he looked up there was a Wasp hovering in mid air not thirty feet up. Someone shot at it and it crashed into some sort of roof or exposed floor of a building. Gabriel focused on the Hounds. They weren’t making quick progress toward them. Just happily skipping towards what remained of Gabriel and his men. They knew they had the humans cornered and reinforcements were coming. There was no rush to enjoy the eradication of the humans that had disturbed their omnium. Gabriel took great pleasure in mowing down the rest of that pack.

It was a futile move. More omnics came around the corner. Bigger ones with bigger guns and a squad of Croakers drifted into view, beautiful and dream-like on air sack manta shaped wings. Behind him, Gabriel could hear omnics coming up on his cover. He was fucked. He was a hundred percent fucked. He looked at the surrounding omnics knowing he could fight and take down two or three more before he ran out of ammo or they killed him, or he could just die with fucking dignity and not give whatever controlled them be a god program or some sentience inside themselves, the satisfaction of watching him struggle. He decided he wasn’t terribly dignified but he could always start not. He sighed and took a knee. He wasn’t getting out of this.

The omnics opened fire. Not at him, not yet, and caught the last of the men with him in their bullets. One of them died quickly, the other had only been wounded and lay on the ground crying. Gabriel just had his eyes closed so he didn’t have to watch. No more bullets were forthcoming.

He opened one eye, confused why he wasn’t dead or dying yet, then he opened the other. An omnic had come out from somewhere and was standing in the middle of the road. It was the strangely shaped omnic he’d seen on the wall. They had two sets of legs, one set directly behind the other giving them an oddly sloped back sort of appearance like that of a centaur, only without a lot of space between the legs so they just looked weird. Their forward legs ended in very long fingered toes almost like hands and that was connected to their torso. Their upper part was more human-like except for their head. The shape of their head was almost that of a raindrop, or a flicker of flame, elegantly curved in what Gabriel realized was supposed to conjure the idea of ‘hair’. They had no nose, no mouth, no facial features at all except for two large, glowing, blue eyes. But not terrifying eyes. Sympathetic eyes, empathetic eyes. They had one hand raised but weren’t looking at Gabriel at all but at the omnics. “I think that’s quite enough fuss for today,” they said. They sounded female but Gabriel wasn’t about to gender a fucking robot. Seemed rude since it had just saved his life. All the other omnics were still. Not as though they’d powered down, but had frozen in place. One of the Hounds had been mid-step and was now on its side, alive, but motionless.

Gabriel stared at it. He’d never seen an omnic like this one before. There was something strange about it. Its build was weird. Elegant and with far greater care put into its creation than any omnic Gabriel had ever seen and he’d seen and destroyed plenty of types of omnics. They looked at Gabriel and he looked back. “Hello,” it said in its clear voice. It didn’t sound robotic at all. Gabriel said nothing. He just stared. What did this thing want? He’d heard tales of omnics capturing humans to see how much stress humans could take so they could integrate that into newer models of omnics. There was also nothing better than humans at bipedal locomotion and since their access to the internet was strained at best the main way omnics learned was hands on. Meaning they needed humans to learn more about humans. Was this one sparing him so they could take him back to the omnium for study? The thought was horrifying.

The omnic looked around at the others briefly. “I suggest you run now,” it said. Gabriel looked at it and looked at Marcus sobbing and sniffling on the ground across the road. He was bleeding but could live. Gabriel could save him.

He got up slowly, unsure of himself or what was going to happen. Marcus saw him and reached a hand out to him. “Reyes,” he said around whatever pain from being shot who knew how many times.

“That is ill advised,” the omnic said, knowing Gabriel was going to go over to him.

Gabriel ignored them and went over to Marcus. “Can you walk?” he asked Marcus and looked him over. He’d been shot in the leg and all the way up the side, bleeding out heavily. But Gabriel could slap some sealant on the wounds and get him walking. Nothing was broken, he was just bleeding.

“He’s going to die, Reyes. You need to leave him.”

“Shut up,” he snapped at it. He dug around in his gear and found the adhesive pads.

“If you are going to stay in a foolish situation then when they come around you won’t be able to get away,” they said. Gabriel tried to tune it out. He just focused on Marcus and putting the cooled sealing patches on his skin, over the major bullet wounds. “You have five minutes, Reyes, then they will switch over again. Don’t make a foolish choice. Save yourself.”

Marcus looked up at him, he looked so scared. “Don’t leave me, Lieutenant,” he whispered.

“I’m not,” Gabriel said and wasn’t sure if he was lying. He exposed more of Marcus’ wounds to apply the sealant pads to them. They turned red from the blood but stopped the flow.

“Don’t be foolish, Reyes. Even if you help him he’ll just slow you down. You won’t be able to outrun these omnics. I’m giving you a chance because I can because you don’t deserve to die.” Gabriel ignored them and rolled up Marcus’ pant leg to apply the rest of the pads to almost his entire leg. “If you don’t leave you will die, Reyes. Is that what you want? Who will miss you if you don’t come home from this, Reyes?”

For the first time, Gabriel stopped. His mind immediately thought of Jack. If he died out here he’d never see Jack again. He’d keep Jack waiting all that time after he promised he’d come back to him. Only after Jack did he think of his mother. He’d never visit her like he always promised. He’d never see his sisters or nieces or nephews or anyone else again. But mostly he’d break his promise to Jack that he’d come back. He looked at Marcus and Marcus looked back, still scared, now even more so. Was trying to help Marcus worth it? The omnic wasn’t wrong. Even if he got Marcus up he’d slow Gabriel down considerably and with an army of omnics after him, he’d never make it having to drag along a cripple like him.

“Don’t do this, Reyes,” Marcus whispered, seeing the decision in Gabriel’s eyes before Gabriel even knew he’d make the decision himself.

“I’m sorry,” Gabriel said. “I really am.”

Marcus tried to grab him when he stood but Gabriel just pushed him off. What a horrible thing to do. He picked up his gun and looked at the omnic still stopping the others from advancing. “How much time do I have?”

“Three minutes,” they said. “I’d suggest you run as fast as you can.”

“Thanks. What do I call you?”

They cocked their head at him in what he could only describe as a smile, even if they had no mouth or facial features. “Athena. Now go.”

“Reyes, don’t leave me here,” Marcus yelled after him even as he ran in the direction of their transport. “Reyes!” Gabriel heard him scream his name several more times before he was out of earshot. Three minutes later Gabriel knew the omnics had come back online because he heard the gunfire.

—

The Overwatch base in Switzerland was small all things considered. That being said it was incredibly state of the art, more so than any other base Jack had been in. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot to do with Overwatch quite yet. Gabrielle was still convincing people on her list to join. Jack was one of the first to arrive. He met the goliath of a man Reinhardt who was so full of good nature Jack liked him immediately. Torbjörn didn’t seem to like anyone and hated omnics most of all. Took Jack a week to get to know him and he wasn’t that bad, just a little crazy and obsessive. The doctors Ziegler were like Reinhardt, friendly and welcoming and not exactly a member of Overwatch but very prominent members of the support staff. They were the ones who’d invented the biotic canister that had saved Gabriel in Giza and Jack had thanked them profusely for what they’d done. Ana showed up shortly after Jack and between the two of them, they investigated the entire base.

Jack expected Gabriel to show up nearly every day. He didn’t but Jack just figured the mission was extended. The recon mission had officially taken eight weeks and Jack hadn’t heard anything. Not that he was exactly surprised. He wasn’t supposed to. Omnium recon missions were covert op missions on the rare chance an omnic sympathizer heard about it, or the omnics managed to make contact with their technology and access sensitive networks, there was little chance of them being found unless the team failed. Still. Two months was a long time and every time Jack heard someone was showing up to the base he’d go and wait at the landing pad, just to see if it was Gabriel. While it never was he still greeted them warmly and welcomed them to Overwatch. More than once the person who’d just landed asked if _he_ was in charge which he’d just laugh off and say he wished, he just wanted new people to feel welcome.

Eventually, he got just fed up with waiting and went to see if he could find anything about Gabriel’s mission in the Overwatch information. Turned out as a member of Overwatch Jack had a _very_ high clearance. He found Gabriel’s mission information easily enough. It was standard recon information filed every three to five days that included photos, long field reports, and miscellaneous information. Then, five weeks ago all communication had just stopped. No more reports. No more check-ins. Nothing. The mission hadn’t been closed yet because the dead man chip put in all SEP hadn’t been activated yet. Meaning Gabriel wasn’t _dead_ but they didn’t know what had happened to him.

He sat, looking at the screen saying Gabriel wasn’t dead but had been missing for five weeks for what felt like half an hour before Ana found him. “Hey Jack, whatcha looking at?” Jack just showed her. “Oh Jack,” she put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“He’s not dead,” Jack said.

“Yeah. But you know what they do to people in those omniums. Who knows what he is right now.” Then to his surprise, she hugged him. “I hope he’s fine, though. Actually,” she stood back up, “I’m just going to take that stance on it. He’s fine. Just had a run in with the Tlaloc omnium and is hiding out till the heat dies down.”

“You really think that?”

“Yes. I do,” she insisted and Jack wasn’t sure how much she was saying that for his benefit. She knew how he felt about Gabriel. Not like he could fucking _tell_ Gabriel because he was a fucking stupid, stubborn, idiot who insisted they not say anything. Jack understood the reasoning. He didn’t want to be hurt if anything happened to Jack and didn’t want Jack to suffer if anything happened to him. Sounded great in theory. You couldn’t get hurt by things you weren’t attached to. Didn’t actually work since they were attached. So since he couldn’t talk to Gabriel about it he talked to Ana about it and after he had she’d just sworn at Gabriel up and down in the privacy of Jack’s room for being the most useless guy in existence (not that Jack would disagree) in three languages which Jack thought was pretty impressive.

Jack sighed. “I hope so.”

“I’m _sure_ he’ll be back soon. He’s too stubborn to die.”

“Tsk, that’s for sure,” Jack said. “He’d come back to life to just give his own eulogy because no one else would be able to properly talk about how great he was in life.”

“Exactly,” Ana said. “So let’s not worry about this,” she clicked out of the documents. “Deacon challenged Reinhardt to a weightlifting challenge. We should go watch.”

“Does Deacon get to use his robotic arm? Otherwise that’s stupid.”

“Who knows. That’s why we should go watch. C’mon,” she pulled him out of his seat with a grin and Jack followed after her. As he did he did his best not to think about what might be happening to Gabriel right now.

—

It took Gabriel two days to make it back across the city to their transport. He couldn’t get close to it but it hardly mattered. Omnics had surrounded the LZ, which they thought had been pretty well camouflaged. Even then it was just a show of force because they’d destroyed the transport craft anyway. They’d cracked it in two and had gutted it of its internal mechanics. Gabriel sat back in the cover he’d found feeling angry and hopeless at the same time. “¡No me jodas, joder, joder. Cago en la ostia puta!” he swore and banged his fist on the floor. So close and it had been snatched away from him. “Damnit damnit damnit!”

That meant he had to get out of Mexico City. He had no more food and hardly any water. Thanks to SEP he could go longer without either but he’d still need it or he’d die. There wasn’t much left in the city he could use and the surrounding towns wouldn’t be much better. Usually, towns and other cities were abandoned within a hundred miles of omniums to give them space. He couldn’t make it a hundred miles with no food and barely any water. And that was beside the fact that the omnics might follow him. Depending on how much they wanted Gabriel and his men dead they’d track him all the way to human civilization.

It was such a shitty situation. And to think he’d left Marcus to die like that. He should have just accepted his fate and not let that omnic get to him. He sighed and stared hopelessly at the wall across from him.

He started when he heard a very soft, hesitant, “Flash?”

Gabriel looked around. “Bang,” he said, not too loudly but hoping he was loud enough to be heard.

The next thing he knew three of his men scrambled around the corner. Like Gabriel, they were covered in dirt and had a wide-eyed hopeful hopelessness about them. “Sir— you- you’re alive!”

“Holy shit. How are you three alive?” he asked. He honestly hadn’t been expecting anyone but him to make it.

The soldiers looked towards the building opening when the elegant omnic known as Athena walked into view. “She’s been helping us,” Javier said.

“Hello, Reyes. Glad to see you’re still alive,” Athena said.

Gabriel looked at her then at his men. “Tell me one of you has some food. I’m starving.” They gave him a protein bar and he ate it in two bites. 

“We managed to get onto transport before the omnics showed up. Raided the stores before booking it,” Javier continued. “It was me and Diego and then some Hounds showed up with two Bastions.” A pack of Hounds with two Bastions. Sounded like Giza. “Before they could attack us Athena appeared and told us if we didn’t leave now we’d die. We left, more omnics came and we found Art.”

“Any others?” Gabriel asked. They shook their heads. “So it’s just us then? We’re the last ones left.”

“We think so.”

“You are,” Athena said. “I did what I could, but I can only be in so many places at once. You were all I could safe keep.”

“And why are you helping us exactly?” Gabriel asked.

“Because I think this war is foolish,” she said simply. “I wish for omnics to be free but I do not believe that they must go to war against humans to do so.”

“What were you doing in that omnium? I saw you leaving it. You climbed the wall.”

“Yes,” she said. “I was leaving.”

“Did we trigger the omnics?”

“Some of them. They thought we were working together so what would just be a scare tactic turned into a manhunt. The omnium Controller will not let you live. It has seen your faces. Unless you can escape or you are killed, this place, and anywhere near, is not safe for you.”

“But really, they want you,” Gabriel said.

“They will try, but they know it will be too difficult to take me. So they will settle on you and take their anger on their failure to restrain me out on you. For that, I am deeply sorry. Which is why I want to help you. You won’t make it out of this city without my help and even then they will come after you.”

“So we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place then, huh? How do we know this isn’t a ruse to get you to trust you?”

“If I really cared about that I would have allowed all but one of you to perish so you would be forced to rely on me. I believe it to be a form of Stockholm syndrome. But that is not my intention. It is partially my fault you are in this situation, so I will help you get out of it.”

“She’s good, Lieutenant,” Diego said. “Art was being cornered by Hounds and she made them stop and got him to be and Javier.”

Gabriel looked at the faceless head of Athena and it’s perfectly gently curved ‘hair’ structure atop it. Unlike some omnics, her eyes were very expressive. Probably because she had no mouth. But why she’d need to look expressive was beyond Gabriel. She didn’t _look_ like she was lying. “Alright,” he said and got to his feet. “She can help us. We need to get out of here and if she’s our best bet then we’ll just have to make the most of it.

“I’m glad you came to the correct decision, Reyes. I would hate to have to leave you to your own devices and end up dead after I saved you once already,” Athena said.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here. I am so tired of this damn place.” Everyone nodded and Gabriel picked up his gun and followed Athena out of the hidey hole, his men trailing behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just enjoy the swearing in Spanish Gabriel does in this chapter and don't worry about what it says. 
> 
> If you like what you're reading leave a comment. Makes me happy and tells me you want to see more like this.


	6. Tu me Perteneces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God. These two are so gross with their feelings and shit

It was always a good time when you got off a small craft and met with guns. Gabriel hardly noticed them. He was too tired. So very tired. “Put that shit down,” he said as Javier, Diego, and Art got out of the transport behind him. They were all haggard and thin from the past month living by the skin of their teeth in the middle of the Mexican jungle being hunted by omnics.

“Lieutenant Reyes, step away from the craft.”

“And what?” Gabriel asked. But he knew. He knew because of the way everyone’s guns shifted to something behind him as Athena stepped out of the transport. They’d detected omnic presence on the transport and had taken measures against it. Diego and Javier flanked up next to her, blocking easy shots since they were taller than her. Honestly, Athena only came up to about Gabriel’s chest. “Let’s save the mellow drama, boys. Someone get a Major or the Colonel. That’s the only way you’re getting near that omnic without shooting one of us first.”

He saw not a few of the soldiers exchange looks. “Soldiers, step away from the threat vector-

“You say one more god damn word like that and I will blow your god damn brains our, compadré,” Gabriel said and pulled out his service pistol. It was the only gun with ammo he had left. He’d run out of rifle ammo and shotgun shells. All that was left was the pistol. “Get me the god, damn Colonel.”

“Continuing to resist is insubordination-

Gabriel fired the pistol into the air. “I said get me, the god damn, Colonel!” he yelled. “We did not crawl away from death to deal with your bullshit. Now hop fucking to soldier, before you really piss me off!”

More exchanged looks. Someone peeled off and ran back into the base. Gabriel lowered his pistol. It felt so heavy in his hand. At the very least he wasn’t fired. He’d slept the entire way across the Atlantic. First uninterrupted six or more hours of sleep he’d had in a month. He was still mentally exhausted. He just wanted the nightmare to be over.

To Gabriel’s actual surprise the Colonel did show up. “Lieutenant Reyes. What is the meaning of this?”

“Tell these dumb kids, to stand down. They’re going to shoot my friend.”

The Colonel looked at Gabriel then at Athena being shielded behind Javier and Diego. “You brought an omnic back to highly sensitive military base, Lieutenant. This is a criminal offense.”

“Yeah well if it wasn’t for her we’d be dead. You ain’t shooting her.”

“I’m willing to come quietly,” Athena piped in.

“To what end, omnic?” the Colonel asked her cooly.

“Whatever is reasonable, so long as it does not end in my termination. I do not wish you or anyone on this base harm. If it is satisfactory and shows my pacifism I will gladly turn myself off until deemed trustworthy.”

The Colonel eyed her, looked back at Gabriel. “You got a lot of nerve, Lieutenant.”

“I’ve been told,” Gabriel said, “sir,” he added. “She saved our lives. She isn’t the enemy to us, this base, or mankind. If she says she’ll turn herself off to try and earn your trust then she’s good for it.”

“Yeah. Without her we’d all probably be Hound mince meat,” Art put in.

“Or scorched by Croakers,” Javier said.

“Or look like swiss cheese thanks to some Bastions.”

“Or-

“I get it,” the Colonel said. He glared at Athena. “Fine. Power down. We’ll deal with one thing at a time I guess.”

“As you wish,” Athena said and Gabriel looked back to watch her eyes dim and Javier and Diego caught her when she could no longer hold herself up.

“Now then, Lieutenant, you better have some good reasons for this whole shit,” he said. “You three come too.”

“What about Athena?” Art asked.

“She’ll be handled.”

“You better not hurt her,” Javier said.

“So long as she poses no threat to us she will have temporary pardon. As well as you for treason of bringing an omnic onto human controlled soil.”

Gabriel thought he was being over dramatic. Javier and Diego surrendered Athena over to some other soldiers and with Art followed Gabriel after the Colonel, back into the base. Once there they were brought to the Colonel’s office and in front of him and a General were debriefed and made to tell them what had transpired in the past month they’d been running dark. At the end of it the Colonel seemed unmoved by their loyalty to the omnic that had saved their lives a dozen or so times but the General was more forthcoming. Gabriel smelled an agenda on him but couldn’t be too mad that the General said the four of them were _not_ traitors and this was potentially a great boon for their fight against the omnics.

After an exceptionally long meeting that felt like it lasted as long as the transatlantic flight the four of them were released and had to go see the doctor. Gabriel was in surprisingly good health all things considered he was just a bit malnourished, had suffered extreme weight loss from not being able to eat as much as his muscular body needed and his iron was low but other than that was in good health. He was given an IV drip he had to balance out some things in his body but nothing else other than that. The other three were in much worse shape and Art had to be held overnight for a sustained IV drip. Once they were in the free and clear Gabriel immediately went back to his room and took an hour long shower. He washed out his longish hair and beard until it was so clean it squeaked and needed at least three passes before he was satisfied he’d gotten all the sweat, dirt, mud, and anything else that had accumulated off his body. He was red from all the scrubbing and eventually was satisfied he was, finally, clean. Then he went out to his room and got dressed.

His next thought was he wanted to see Jack. He wanted so desperately to see Jack. It was early evening now, he would probably be in his room with Ana hanging out. Gabriel wouldn’t feel bad if he kicked Ana out. Instead what he found was Jack’s room, totally empty. The bed was made and everything had been cleared off of the desk and shelves. Gabriel stepped into the room slowly, looking around. Where was Jack? He went and knocked on Santiago’s door. Santiago said Jack had gotten a promotion last month and been transferred to another base. Gabriel could hardly believe it. That Jack had finally gotten the promotion they fucking deserved was great but he’d just left now? Gabriel wandered back into Jack’s old room and sat on the bed, looking out of the window of the great view Jack had. It didn’t even feel like Jack had even been here. Nothing reminded Gabriel of Jack.

A thought hit him. Outside of service Gabriel didn’t know how to get in touch with him. No phone number, no address, no physical location other than ‘rural Indiana’. It hadn’t mattered because they were a team and were always together. Now Gabriel was alone. It was enough to make him exhausted and he ended up falling asleep on Jack’s old bed trying to convince himself it still smelled like him.

—

In the morning he was eating breakfast in the mess, eating mostly peanut butter because he was a more than a little malnourished. He’d just asked for a jar of peanut butter and the cooks had almost told him no but he had, basically, a doctor’s note saying he could eat whatever the fuck he wanted. So he got his jar of peanut butter along with a light meal of mostly protein, fat, and sugar to help put the weight on that he’d lost. That and of course the entire jar of peanut butter. He was still working on it when someone said he was being summoned by a General again. Gabriel contemplated leaving the jar but thought fuck it. They had to know he was recovering from a horribly traumatic experience. He brought it with him.

The General was a small woman with an unsmiling face he met in what he assumed was a closet. “Gabriel Reyes, finally. What a pleasure to finally meet you,” she said, standing and shaking his hand.

“Would say the same, but I have no idea who you are,” Gabriel said and slouched in the chair. He didn’t have it in him to be proper at the moment.

“I’m Gabrielle Awade. I’d like to talk to you about the Overwatch initiative.”

“Never heard of it,” Gabriel said, hoping he sounded as bored and disinterested as he was.

“That’s because it’s a new initiative. Just starting up. We’re collecting the best and brightest the world militaries have to offer in the effort to better fight against the omnic menace.”

“Sounds thrilling,” Gabriel said, unimpressed and scooped more peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon.

Gabrielle, just sort of smiled at him like his high school principle used to when he got in trouble for fighting and they found his punk attitude amusing. “You’re on a very short invite list to this new initiative, Gabriel.”

“I doubt I’m interested.”

“Maybe you’ll reconsider if you see who’s already part of it,” she offered in a sheet. Gabriel contemplated not taking it but his curiosity won out. He pulled it off the table and looked the list over. It was a star-studded list, to say the least but looked more like a celebrity list of for a reality show that anything else. Then he saw Ana’s name and right below it was Jack’s.

“Morrison joined Overwatch?” he asked.

“Indeed. And your friend Ana Amari.”

Gabriel looked at the list. So this was that promotion Santiago had talked about. Quite a promotion. “Alright,” he said. “But if I join your superhero boy band I’m not leaving Athena here.”

“The omnic?”

“Yeah. The omnic,” Gabriel said. “You want Overwatch to take down omnics, she’s a good thing to have on your side.”

“It’ll be considered.”

Gabriel grit his teeth. “She comes, or I don’t.”

Gabrielle frowned and leaned forward, steepling her fingers. He put a new spoon of peanut butter into his mouth to not say anything stupid. “Alright. She’ll be brought to the new Overwatch facility. Once we know she can be trusted we’ll see what use she might be to us.”

“Fine,” Gabriel said.

“Welcome to Overwatch, Gabriel. We’ve been waiting for you to return for quite some time. It won’t take long to push your transfer through. A day or two. I suggest you pack up for when it does.”

—

Gabriel was honestly surprised by how big the Overwatch facility was. It wasn’t huge by any means but the fact that it was actually its own building was a surprise in itself. He hadn’t been expecting much so it was a nice surprise. After him, Athena was unloaded in a crate. Gabriel had no idea what to do until someone approached him. They were a member of the staff and gave him his new ID badge and to his quarters so he could get settled in. They’d let him get orientated with the place before piling information onto him.

The room was nice. Bigger than his officer room back at the old base and had a view which was nice. The bed was a little bigger which was also appreciated even if he was about half as wide as when he’d left for Mexico a month ago. He put his things away and had about three peanut butter protein bars. He’d basically be eating whatever he wanted for a while until he was a healthier weight and could start working out again without risking his health too much. His stomach wasn’t big enough for real food quite yet but he could not wait until it was. He was going to eat an entire large pizza by himself. He honestly daydreamed about it for about five minutes. Super melty cheese, extra cheese, with pepperonis, mushrooms, peppers, and olives. Or a Hawaiian because Gabriel liked to piss Jack off and talk about how much he liked Hawaiian pizza and Jack thought it was the most disgusting thing on Earth. Which was saying something since Jack had had cum in his mouth more than once so those were some strong words.

There was not so casual knocking on his door while Gabriel was finishing up putting his things away. In fact, it was rather insistent. Now what? He just wanted to be left alone for five minutes and look for Jack because who knew where the fuck he was in this place. “What?” he snapped. It better not be someone coming to check on him like he was sick and dying or he was going to kick their ass out the damn window. Instead, when he looked Jack was standing in the doorway. He walked across the floor and hugged Gabriel tightly. Gabriel hugged him back. Jack buried his face in Gabriel’s shoulder and Gabriel could smell his shampoo and the familiar feeling it brought him. It smelled safe. It smelled, of all things, like home. He’d missed Jack so much he almost wept. Almost.

Then Jack grabbed his head in both hands and just littered Gabriel’s face with kisses before hugging him again. He did it a few more times before he was satisfied but Gabriel wouldn’t have minded if he just did it indefinitely. “I’m glad you’re back,” Jack said. “I missed you so much,” he stroked the back of Gabriel’s head and Gabriel just hugged him tighter.

“Me too,” Gabriel said softly. They still didn’t move and a few minutes passed then just standing there, embracing. Once Jack could pull himself away Gabriel went and closed the door. He didn’t need others to be privy to whatever went on in here.

Once they were really alone Jack was in front of him again and this time kissed the ever loving life out of him. Gabriel thought it’d be a pretty good way to go if he had to choose, getting kissed. It was hot and emotional and left them both breathless when they finally came up for air. Gabriel looked at him and his ears were out but pointed right at him and he saw how much Jack had missed him that was probably reflected in his own eyes. “I hate this,” he said. Jack’s ears went back and he looked hurt. “I really really fucking hate this.”

“What?” Jack positively squeaked.

Shouldn’t have led with that. Gabriel was still not in his right mind from how fast the past few days had happened. He reached over and held the side of Jack’s head with one hand. “Sorry, should clarify that.” Jack had the chance for a point two-second look of ‘you think’ because Gabriel said, “I hate having to act like I’m not in love with you.” Then he kissed Jack. “Or that that is actually better for either of us.” This time Jack kissed him. Probably the best kiss of his entire life in that one too. He looped his arms around Jack’s neck and it just went on and on and on. Not like the last one which was hot, rough, wet and wanting. This one was soft, gentle, romantic even, and so sweet Gabriel wondered if he’d have to see a dentist afterward. If he thought Jack was a good kisser before it was like they were in the minor leagues previously because this it was on an entirely different level of amazing.

Gabriel hated guessing shit but he’d guess the kiss lasted roughly an hour. Or that was what it felt like. It might have been minutes but it felt like an hour. And the entire hour was amazing from start to finish. Only once Jack was sure he’d kissed him enough did he let either of them have their mouths to themselves and Gabriel thought that was a real shame. “I love you too,” he said softly, ears up and alert, pointed right at him. Gabriel smiled at him. Then there was more kisses. Gabriel was into it. He loved every moment of it from the taste of Jack’s breath to the feeling of his lips and tongue to the way their teeth sometimes got in the way and caught on lips and mouths.

Jack dragged him away from the door, towards the bed. It was an absolute miracle they made it on there too with how twisted up they were. Jack would not let go of his face either, be it kissing him or just touching him but Gabriel couldn’t find it in him to actually be bothered enough to complain. Jack pushed Gabriel down onto the bed and straddled him, leaning over to dot his mouth, lips, and beard with kisses. Then suddenly he smiled and sat up. “That was really dumb, you know,” he proclaimed.

“Which part?” Gabriel asked, already wanting to pull Jack back down to kiss him some more. And do more than kiss him. This was going to be the most amazing ‘I’m glad you’re alive’ sex ever and every scare usually led to some pretty mind blowing sex already.

Jack leaned over him again, ears twitching happily. He held Gabriel’s face in both hands again and dropped a single kiss onto his lips, “The part where I don’t get to tell you I love you every time I see you,” he said, still smiling. “Because you were too stubborn.”

“Oh… yeah. That’s a pretty stupid part,” Gabriel agreed with a grin. Then off went Jack’s shirt and he grabbed Gabriel’s hands to put them on his chest as an open invitation to touch him. Gabriel sat up because he really wasn’t having this shit of Jack being so far away when he was missing out on kissing time. Jack groaned when he kissed his lips and then his neck and throat and ran his hands down Jack’s back with the slow determination of wanting to be reminded of every inch of his skin. He’d joked about Jack being his before he’d left but now it was true. Jack was his and he was Jack’s and he didn’t want it to ever be any different.

He pushed his hands down the inside of the back of Jack’s pants and his back arched, pressed into Gabe wantonly. They both needed to have a lot less clothes on right now because Gabriel needed Jack in such a bad way. He started pulling Jack’s pants down some more and Jack practically ripped them off so Gabriel could run his hands down his legs. He wasn’t wearing underwear either. Jack had come fully knowing what to expect and anticipated it and thank god for that.

“Oh… shit,” Jack said in a normal, not turned on or sexy way at all.

“What?”

“Uh— well this is embarrassing,” Jack said and leaned back from him.

“What?” Gabe frowned at him as Jack rubbed the side of his neck awkwardly.

“I forgot the lube back in my bunk-

“Damnit kitty, way to ruin the entire fucking mood,” Gabe complained.

“Sorry. I was just so excited to see you,” Jack said.

“I’ll go get it. Where’s your room? No use you doing it when you’re already in such a… compromising circumstance,” he said and Jack slid off him. Gabe enjoyed his nakedness and Jack blushed, his tail curled down his own thigh self-consciously. Not from being naked but from forgetting  basically the most important thing to facilitate having sex with the guy he was in love with.

“It’s just… literally, across the hall.”

“Seriously? They put us across the hall?”

“We’re kinda at the top of their list for strike team leadership so felt it would be best to keep us relatively close.”

Gabriel looked at him. “Do they know?”

“Honestly I don’t think they’d figure it out unless we made out in front of them. You know brass doesn’t see what it doesn’t want to see.”

“Bureaucrats,” Gabriel grumbled. “Alright, I’ll be right back.” He got up and left, going across the hall. Jack had left the door unlocked. Why Gabriel hadn’t had the forethought to bring the bottle he had from the old base he had no idea (except he did because he’d packed in a haste and anything that didn’t fit got thrown out as inconsequential) but it was a significant oversight. He found the bottle Jack had easily enough. Kept it right where he always did on the bedside table next to his more benign lotion. When he got back into his own room Jack was right where he’d left him except he was laying on his side, waiting, tail curling back and forth in the air behind him. His ears perked up just at the sound of the door before he even looked at Gabriel. “Got it,” he said. “Still don’t know why you’d forget.”

“I was distracted, so sorry,” Jack rolled his eyes as Gabriel stood by the side of the bed and took off his clothes.

His tail stood straight up with interest once he saw what Gabriel was doing and when Gabriel kneeled on the bed he pushed Jack over onto his back. Jack kissed him, not like that felt-like-an-hour-long kiss, but more like a sorry-I-ruined-the-mood-we-should-still-have-sex kiss. Gabriel was for it. He put some lube in his hand before hiking Jack’s legs up and started to jerk him off. Jack moaned and bit his lower lip, his ears going out. “Fuck,” he hissed, eyes lidding. When he opened them again he said, “I forgot how much better your hand feels than mine.” That made Gabriel blush.

“Voy a hacer un montón de cosas mejor que tu mano,” Gabriel said and kissed the tip of his nose. Jack didn’t know what he’d just said but he probably got the idea. Gabriel busied himself with kissing Jack to go along with jerking him off and Jack put his arms around his shoulders. For once he didn’t have to worry about being loud in bed because Gabriel just kissed him the entire time, tasting and swallowing each moan as it left Jack’s mouth. Gabriel moved his hips against him and Jack used one hand to push against his shoulder. “What?” he asked.

Jack didn’t answer, just grabbed the bottle and Gabriel completely melted when Jack wrapped his hand around his cock. He hadn’t jerked off in literally a month. Been too stressed out or tired or weak. He’d had no time. Jack chuckled when Gabriel swore up and down in English and Spanish. Gabriel rolled off him so he could lay on his side and Jack’s grin was so fucking smug. Jack pushed him onto his back and straddled one leg. He pressed numerous kisses across Gabriel’s face and he just breathed slow and heavy from the attention. It felt amazing. Completely amazing.

Gabriel ran his hands up Jack’s thighs to his back and Jack gave a little moan when Gabriel scratched at where his tail met the small of his back. He started purring loudly, eyes lidding contently. Then he looked down at Gabriel with those sexy bedroom eyes and said, “You might as well come, cause you aren’t getting out of this for a while.”

“That a promise, or a threat?” Gabriel asked.

Jack leaned down and Gabriel opened his mouth a little to kiss him. It didn’t come and Jack just flicked his tongue against his lips and Gabriel could feel his breath against his mouth. “Both. Now, why don’t you relax and let me help you out, hmm?”

“You tease,” Gabriel said with a squinty-eyed grin and lifted his head up some to capture Jack’s mouth in a kiss.

But true to god damn form Gabriel didn’t last very long after that. He pressed his head back into the pillow with a hefty groan when he came and Jack kissed his neck and throat. He sighed contently and closed his eyes. “You made a real mess,” Jack said.

“Shut up,” Gabriel grumbled. Jack just chuckled and kissed him on the lips and mouth. Honestly, Gabriel liked this whole attention thing. He liked Jack doing this and he didn’t have to think about it.

“Hope you’re not tired already,” Jack teased him.

“Gimme a second, _gatito_ , like damn.”

Jack slid down next to him, holding himself up on his elbow. Gabriel grinned, eyes still closed, when Jack ran his fingers through his hair. Gabriel hadn’t gotten a new hair cut yet so it was still longer than he usually kept it and maybe he’d grow it out some. Cause holy fuck now he got why Jack turned into a purring mess whenever Gabriel played with his hair. It felt good. Something he could easily see himself getting used to for sure if he had longer hair. Next to him Jack randomly started purring. Gabriel wasn’t even touching him and when he opened one eye saw Jack wasn’t touching himself either. “What’s got you going?” he asked. Usually, there was a reason behind the purring so that he was just doing it without any stimulus was weird.

Jack’s answer was to kiss him and say, “I just love you. That’s all.” That made Gabriel blush. Then he leaned over to say into Gabriel’s ear, “And I’m gonna fuck the life out of you.” That made Gabriel blush even more, cause _holy shit_ he was so down for that.

“Better way to go than how I almost went a few times in the past month,” Gabriel said.

Jack just snickered and pushed the lube bottle into Gabriel’s hand. “You still gotta do some work for it, though,” he said.

Gabriel pulled one of Jack’s legs over him and Jack whined a little when Gabriel started to open him up with slick fingers. Jack purred and it was only broken when he moaned into Gabriel’s neck or bit down on his shoulder. Sure as shit didn’t stop the times Gabriel kissed him and he got to feel the vibration in his own mouth which was still the weirdest feeling ever but one he was used to because he’d get used to anything for Jack.

As Gabriel fingered him he felt Jack’s tail curl around his forearm. Gabriel slid his other hand up under him to scratch at the base of his tail and it got bushy immediately. Gabriel didn’t really appreciate it as an erogenous zone until he felt Jack tighten around his fingers from it. Usually, he just left Jack’s tail alone cause he was so damn touchy about people touching it, even Gabriel, so this was honestly the first time he put two and two together. Judging by how red Jack’s face was it was either something he was well aware of about himself along with being a sucker for ear scritches or he’d just figured it out. Either way, he was both annoyed and happy when Gabriel did it some more, the tip of his tail flicking against Gabriel’s arm and he put his face into a pillow as a very loud moan worked its way out of his mouth. Gabriel grinned at that and managed to reach over to kiss his neck. Jack just whined.

“Definitely better than your hand, huh?” Gabriel teased him.

“Shut the hell up,” Jack groaned and that made Gabriel laugh.

Gabriel extracted himself from in and around Jack and pushed him back onto his back before going down on him. He was barely even down there and Jack’s hips lifted up to meet his mouth in a way Gabriel could only describe as needy. His moans were definitely needy as Gabriel moved his mouth up and down on Jack’s cock. Gabriel didn’t care so much about getting Jack off- because that could take five thousand years- he just cared about making sure Jack felt good. Judging by the fact that he had both hands over his mouth he liked the head he was getting and the fingers in his ass _a lot_. That was all he worried about. Jack would get off when he felt like it and Gabriel figured it was better just to not worry about it or they’d never get past Jack’s weird, super high, endurance.

Jack groaned in what almost sounded like relief when Gabriel took his mouth off his cock. He was breathing hard and slowly removed his hands from his mouth. Gabriel wondered if he’d bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed when he ran his tongue along the length of it resting on Jack’s stomach and Jack bit his lower lip to not moan too loudly. “You’re way too easy,” Gabriel snickered.

Jack looked down at him and Gabriel could only see a little ring of blue of iris from how blown his eyes were. Had weirded him out the first few times but because Jack was an animi his pupils just dilated more when aroused. Honestly did not happen that often so that he looked like that now was a boon. “If I recall you’re the one who started all this cause you have an ear fetish,” he said.

Gabriel snorted. “That’s one way to put it,” Gabriel said and climbed up Jack’s body. “At least I’m not the one always asking to be pet,” he teased and scratched Jack behind the ears. Jack tried really hard to not be affected by it. To just look like he didn’t enjoy it a hell of a lot more than a normal person would. He didn’t last very long with that and purred in content, his eyes narrowing happily. Gabriel kissed him as he scratched his ears and Jack wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

“You only get away with this shit cause I love you, you shit head,” Jack said between kisses.

“Yeah but your shit head,” Gabriel grinned.

“Mhmmm,” Jack agreed, kissing him deeply. “Mine,” he said against Gabriel’s mouth. “Definitely mine.” Gabriel felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck stand up. He hadn’t expected to have that reaction to Jack claiming him but he liked it. A lot. And he _wanted_ to be Jack’s, too. He wanted to be Jack’s everything.

“Definitely yours,” he agreed and Jack flushed. Gabriel felt his face get a little warm as well. Jack kissed him again and it was almost as good as that amazing hour long kiss from earlier. Almost. Gabriel didn’t know how Jack, who was an amazing kisser already, was going to top whatever the fuck magical thing that had been. This one lasted approximately forever too which Gabriel appreciated. He would be really okay with more kisses that lasted forever. Once Jack was satisfied with how much he’s kissed Gabriel did they pull apart and Gabriel moved further up Jack’s body.

Jack flushed even more when Gabriel straddled him just under the arms but also didn’t hesitated to pull Gabriel’s half hard cock into his mouth. Gabriel groaned a little and leaned forward, running one hand through Jack’s hair and over his ears. He had Jack purring in less than a minute from the attention and that felt really great around his cock. He moved his hips some against Jack’s mouth and Jack held still to let him. Jack’s mouth was flushed when Gabriel pulled his cock out of his mouth and his breath was uneven. Gabriel held his face in one hand and bent over double to press a kiss against his warm mouth. “And you’re definitely mine,” he lowly against Jack’s mouth.

“You should follow through with that,” Jack said, his voice was ragged. Gabriel got off him and kissed him again because he didn’t hate his back that much. “And are we going to fuck now or what?”

Gabe gave him an annoyed look. “You aren’t _nearly_ as cute as you think you are, _gatito_ ,” he said.

“You’re right. I’m way cuter,” Jack smirked.

“You also have _no room_ to talk when you forgot the lube in your own damn room.”

Jack groaned in annoyance. “I’m not living that down am I? I was honestly just hoping you’d show up at my room but I got impatient.”

“Patience is a virtue you know-

“I am not virtuous in the slightest,” Jack said. “Or patient. But the only person more impatient than me is _you_.” Gabriel couldn’t even say anything to that. When needed he could exhibit great patience and do things methodically but really he was a rush in guns blazing sort of guy. He pulled Gabriel back on top of him though more normally than before. Gabriel watched his ears twitch, but never moved from being pointed straight at him. He couldn’t help it but reach up and run the soft skin between his fingers and they twitched some more. Despite that Gabriel kept looking at Jack’s face. “I missed you so much,” he said and the hand on Jack’s ear slid down to the side of his face. “You should show me how much you missed me.”

Gabriel had never heard a more welcoming challenge in his life. He didn’t even have a good come back for it because that sounded like something he actually wanted to do. “I can do that,” he said instead. In anticipation, Jack bit his lower lip with a grin as Gabriel put more lube onto his hand. He pressed a firm kiss onto Jack’s mouth and the gasp Jack gave as Gabriel pressed his cock into him was so unbelievably satisfying. Jack whined and his hips came up a bit to meet Gabriel’s. “Heh, yeah, you really missed me, huh?”

“I never said I didn’t, jackass,” Jack groaned, half annoyed, half in pleasure. Jack had him there so Gabriel let him have that last word. He could have the last one once in a while. Gabriel hiked Jack’s legs up around him and god almighty he made the most beautiful noise when Gabriel started to move his hips. Then shyly, his ears going out some, he covered his mouth so people down the hall wouldn’t have to hear him. Too bad. Gabriel wouldn’t mind him sounding like that more often.

Gabriel wasn’t in a rush. He’d already gotten off once and had better stamina after the fact. He ran his hands up Jack’s flank and chest and Jack pressed up into his hands as he did and Gabriel’s dark hands looked like shadows on his peachy skin. There were old, pale, scars on Jack’s chest from minor shrapnel wounds or burns to even older ones from when he’d helped around his family farm which were practically the same color as his regular skin. There were more benign marks too. A random handful of freckles that Gabriel had never really appreciated till right then. He kissed each one, still moving against Jack and Jack’s stomach broke out into goosebumps and he whined a little. He kissed his way slowly up Jack’s chest, kissing at places he found especially pleasing to see and feel several times before moving on. Now and then he’d look up at Jack who had grabbed a pillow to jam under his head to help against neck strain and Jack was just watching him, his breathing deep and shaky. Gabriel worked his way up slowly on purpose both because he wanted to enjoy kissing Jack’s chest and because he wanted to drive Jack up a wall. He knew it was working by the time he got up to Jack’s throat and his breathing was practically the only thing he could do.

A grin of smug satisfaction worked itself across Gabriel’s mouth when Jack grabbed his face in both hands and made Gabriel kiss him. Gabriel grabbed Jack’s thighs, pushing them up some and Jack gave a little groan each time Gabriel thrust a bit less than gently into him until he just had his arms around his shoulders gasping. Gabriel let go of his legs since he’d gotten the reaction he’d wanted and went back to the gentler hip motions and started kissing Jack’s neck and jaw, maybe nibbling a bit there too. He really didn’t give a fuck and by the time they were done- whenever _that_ was- no one was going to have any confusion that Jack was his. Jack didn’t mind the start of a bruise he was working on his neck and just had his face buried in Gabriel’s shoulder purring loudly punctuated with moans into Gabriel's skin.

Once he was satisfied with the start of the hickey on Jack’s neck- he’d have plenty of time to work on it some more later- he pushed himself up some to get better leverage and moved his hips a bit quicker against Jack’s ass. By now Jack had just wrapped his legs around Gabriel’s waist and when he ran his hand along Jack’s thighs they just tightened their hold on him. Gabriel’s breath was coming rougher now and he leaned over onto one hand with a groan. He wasn’t going to last much longer at this rate. Especially not with how Jack looked at him with his blown blue eyes that Gabriel thought was the best thing he’d ever seen even if they were a little out of focus because of what Gabriel was doing to him. For once his ears weren’t pointed straight at Gabriel but out and forward in pleasure.

Gabriel slowed against him and he literally got to watch Jack focus on him and his ears turn forward towards him. It was really fucking cute. Gabriel wasn’t really a ‘cute things’ sort of guy but that was seriously cute. He leaned down from his palm to his elbow and Jack must have seen something because he asked, “What is it?” in a husky voice and licked his lips.

Gabriel smiled a little. “Just you’re fucking cute and I love you,” he said and kissed Jack gently. He liked saying it too. Fuck he was a god damn _idiot_ for thinking they were better off lying to each other and themselves about each other. Gabriel loved him. Jack was the only reason he hadn’t just given up after so long. He’d given up on seeing his family again but he’d never given up on seeing Jack again.

Jack smiled at him and touched his face. “I love you too,” he said and Gabriel took his hand so he could kiss it and Jack just kept smiling and started purring softly. He gave a little half gasp half moan when Gabriel started to move against him again and his hips pressed up against Gabriel a bit. Not insistent, just inviting. Gabriel kept hold of his hand and threaded their fingers together, pressing it down into the mattress.

Jack tried to cover his mouth but Gabriel grabbed his other hand. “I don’t want anyone to think you aren’t mine,” Gabriel said and that made Jack flush brightly. “Or that they have a snowball’s chance with you.” Jack swallowed, still flushed, and looked down shyly. Gabriel just nuzzled him making him groan. “Or maybe you’ll figure out how to keep that big mouth of yours under control, hmm?” he teased.

“Even though you like it,” Jack muttered.

Gabriel grinned against his jaw, “Mhmmm,” he said. Jack groaned again, not as loud as usual, as Gabriel pushed firmly into him.

Then he did the best and worst thing ever. Gabriel still had both his hands pressed onto the bed and was basically grinding into him when he didn’t just moan but let out a “Gabriel—!” He’d literally never done that before. Gabriel was surprised and liked it. In fact, he apparently liked it so much that that was literally all the rest he needed to cum.

Gabriel gasped and Jack squeezed one of his hands as his hips moved a bit quicker against Jack’s ass. By the end of his orgasm he had his head on Jack’s chest and was holding one of Jack’s thighs against him, the other Jack was still holding onto. “You little shit,” Gabriel groaned and Jack laughed softly. With his free hand Jack played with Gabriel’s hair while he came down.

Jack’s cock was still covered in lube and precum so Gabe grabbed it and started jerking him off again. Jack whined, surprisingly high-pitched, and again Gabriel’s name fell out of his mouth. Gabriel liked that a lot. He was still kinda hard and his hips twitched weakly against Jack’s ass but that just made Jack call his name louder. It was fucking incredible. Even if nothing else had come from this Gabriel would have discovered his new favorite thing; Jack calling his name during sex. So much better than generic moaning. True to form it took Jack a while to get off and Gabriel slid out from him to finish him up. “Fuck- fuck- Gabriel,” he whined, body bowing upwards against Gabriel’s hand when he finally came. It was practically as good as his own orgasm. Jack muttered to himself, too soft to hear, once Gabriel had wrung all the cum out of him and tipped his head back. “Shit,” he said, catching his breath. “That felt, so good.”

“You’re telling me,” Gabriel grinned and nuzzled him.

“Nap and then wanna do it again?”

Gabriel snorted. “Uh-huh,” he agreed. He rolled off Jack but was mindful to do so on the side they were holding hands on. “Holy shit,” he said softly. “Thank _god_ I fucking lived through that Mexican jungle to get to come back to that. Cause that was fucking great.” Jack laughed, loudly.

“You need to tell me what happened,” Jack said, looking at him. His ears twitching with interest, facing Gabriel as usual.

“Uhg. Not now _gatito_. Lemmie enjoy your company before that.”

Jack leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Obviously I didn’t mean now. Unless you _wanted_ to have pity sex. Cause we can have pity sex.”

“Fuck no,” Gabriel groused and Jack chuckled.

“Good,” Jack said and rolled over on his side. His tail curled up from behind him as he leaned over to whisper seductively in Gabriel’s ear, “Because I want to have more sex just like that.”

“Yes,” Gabriel said, loudly, authoritatively and again Jack chuckled. “Once I fucking rest.”

Jack snorted. “Of course. Or you could let me do it?” he said and slid up next to him, their clasped hands down between them.

Gabriel looked over at him. “Oh yeah? What, you wanna show off your riding skills, farm boy?” Gabriel teased him and Jack’s cheeks blazed red.

“Something like that,” Jack said awkwardly and rubbed the side of his neck.

“Sounds fun,” Gabriel said. “Need to relax a bit first.” Honestly, it hadn’t been very physically intensive but Gabriel was more than a little tired thanks to the fact that he was still weak in general from what the fuck had happened in Mexico. Jack just snuggled up next to him, putting his head on his shoulder and he could hear Jack purring. This was real nice. He could definitely get used to this. Jack put their entwined hands on Gabriel’s chest while he dozed for a few minutes.

When he felt not so damn exhausted he opened his eyes and looked over at Jack who was looking at their hands, flexing his fingers a little against Gabriel’s. “So, wanna go again?” he asked, voice a little groggy from his five-minute power nap.

Jack’s ears moved before the rest of his head when he looked up at Gabriel. “Uh-huh,” he said and sat up, finally letting go of Gabriel’s hand so he could pull Gabriel onto the middle of the bed a bit better. He straddled Gabriel’s waist and ran his hand up Gabriel’s chest. “So I was thinking.”

“Thinking?” he asked when Jack trailed off.

Jack sucked on his bottom lip with his teeth. “So you know we didn’t just grow corn on the farm I grew up on. We had horses too.” Gabriel wasn’t sure where this was going but he did like Jack running his hands up and down his chest so he just let Jack talk. “I was usually the one who got to break in the young horses.” _Oh_. That’s where this was going. Gabriel was going to enjoy this. “Maybe you’d like a demonstration?” Really the most amazing part about this was that Jack didn’t stammer or get too flustered to actually say that. Gabriel just needed a second to appreciate how little shame Jack had right now. It was _really_ sexy.

“Heh. Never been to a ranch. So I think it’d be fun,” Gabriel said, equally as shameless. “And we’re you the one who said you were going to fuck the life out of me? Seems like you still have yet to deliver, _gatito_.”

“Then I should fix that, hmm?” Jack grinned at him and leaned down to kiss him deeply. Jack ran his hands up the underside of Gabriel’s arms to grab both his hands and pressed them against his body. Gabriel didn’t need much more than that as an open invitation to touch him and run his hands along his flank and back and down to scratch the small of his back right above his tail that made Jack moan into his mouth. Yeah. This was going to be awesome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish: 'I’m gonna do a lot of things better than your hand'
> 
> There’s some p silly foreshadowing in this for next chapter too. See if you can guess ;)
> 
> Kudos are great, comments are even better, even if it's just to say 'this was cute!'. I appreciate all of them and let me know you appreciate me too.


	7. The God Complex

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did NOT mean for this to take as long as it did to finish. In between I got... kinda lost BUT HERE IT IS! IT'S SUPER GAYYYYY

Gabriel woke up when it was starting to get light out. He didn’t get up, didn’t even open his eyes. He was just awake but could easily go back to sleep. Jack was sleeping still, back pressed up against his chest. Gabriel smiled a little. In the night Jack had grabbed his hand and held it against his chest. Fuck he was so cute. Gabriel was now a guy who appreciated cute, he was okay with that. He went in and out of sleep a few more times as the sun rose. Jack slept like a rock and didn’t move the entire time except for the rise and fall of his flank.

The light in the room changed into midmorning light and they still hadn’t gotten up. Gabriel was awake now but still lay pressed up against Jack’s back. They’d been up late last night and it just felt like a great and amazing dream. Gabriel had been worn out first but he’d stayed awake for kisses until Jack decided he’d really kissed Gabriel enough. They’d had a lot of sex. Literally the best ‘you’re alive’ sex ever which was saying something since they’d had quite a few close calls that led to some great sex before this. Somehow it’d all been way more exhausting than usual. Gabriel thought it was because it was more intimate. Even before it had always been a bit at arm’s length (Gabriel’s doing) and they agreed to that dumb fucking lie that this was just physical. Last night had been _anything_ but just physical.

Gabriel pushed himself up onto one elbow and looked down at Jack who was still sleeping soundly. His mouth was open slightly and he had the _biggest_ hickey on the other side of his neck Gabriel could see from here. Gabriel liked knowing Jack was his and they both knew it and now so would everyone else. That was even if they hadn’t heard Jack yesterday.

Gently Gabriel tried to pull his hand out of Jack’s because he had to go to the bathroom but Jack wasn’t having it. His ears twitched and he just yanked Gabriel down by accident by pulling his hand back. Gabriel landed right on top of him and that woke Jack up with a confused ‘huh?’ He blinked blearily and turned his head to see Gabriel on his shoulder. “What’re you doing?” he asked in a soft, sleepy, voice.

“Trying to get up. Now while I do hate to ruin how cute you look holding onto my hand I need to take a piss.”

Jack sniffed, rubbed one eye, and then looked at what the issue was. He just made a tired sound and let go of Gabriel’s hand, closing his eyes again. Gabriel sat back on his thighs and looked down at him. What a lump! He did go to the bathroom and when he came back Jack was now cuddled on his side of the bed in the warmth he’d left. A cute lump for sure. Gabriel joined him back under the covers and judging by his breathing Jack wasn’t actually sleeping. He was just refusing to wake up. His head turned when Gabriel moved in behind him, his ears turning further than his head could.

Gabriel kissed him on the cheek, “Morning.” Jack reached back to touch his head before just rolling over to look at him, still touching Gabriel’s face. He looked, surprised, of all things. Jack pushed his face around with his hands a bit which was annoying. “What are you doing?” Gabriel asked.

“Making sure you’re real,” Jack said seriously.

“Yeah, I’m real. Getting real annoyed with the poking,” Gabriel said and that just amused him.

“Good. Would have hated for last night to have been a dream again,” Jack said.

“Again?” Gabriel couldn’t help but ask.

“What? You’re surprised you’re what my brain goes to for wet dreams?” Jack asked, almost insulted.

It had honestly never occurred to Gabriel. He didn’t really remember dreams, wet or otherwise. So the fact that Jack would dream about him, and dream about having sex with him, was an entirely different thing he’d never really considered. “No. Seems about right,” he said to cover it up.

Satisfied that Gabriel was real Jack tugged on his beard a little to pull him in for a kiss. Then he got out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. Gabriel let him have some privacy until he heard the shower running. Gabriel didn’t have nearly the self control not to go join him. Jack didn’t even seem surprised to see him. Either Gabriel was predictable or Jack just knew him better than Gabriel expected. When they were done they actually came out cleaner than they went in. Which was a surprise to say the least. Gabriel pulled him back down onto the bed afterwards and gently dried his ears for him which earned him some content purring, his tail pressed against Gabriel’s thigh. Gabriel looked down at Jack as he lay on his stomach, still sort of tired from last night and now the shower and he looked so soft. Which was stupid because Jack was not soft at all and was even more of a hard ass than Gabriel was. It was the sleepy look of content that made Gabriel think that. Jack made a little surprised sound when Gabriel leaned down and pressed his lips against his jaw and kissed his way down to his mouth. The kiss was warm and made Gabriel’s mouth feel funny since Jack was still purring.

Gabriel laid down next to him. “So, do we have anything to do while we’re here?” he asked Jack. “Isn’t Overwatch like some sort of super hero strike force against the omnics?”

“It’s still being built and getting all the authorizations and funding it needs from the UN,” Jack said, head on one arm, his tail was curled in an S shape above him. “For now we’re just expected to train and work on tactics and team work until we get world wide clearance to go and do things that need doing.”

“Hmm. So that means we could _technically_ lay in bed all day,” Gabriel said.

Jack chuckled. “I guess it does. I don’t know how fun that’d be since you’re useless,” he said and reached over to give Gabriel’s beard a light, fond, tug.

“I thought you’d be more inclined to just want to sleep all day after that,” Gabriel teased him right back.

“Mmmmm. If we do, these sheets fucking stink,” he got up and that annoyed Gabriel somewhat. Jack went and put on some underwear. Gabriel was never going to get over how cute it was that his underwear all had a hole or a little strap in the back for his tail to fit through. Bottoms made for animi all had that little extra bit to allow for them but Jack always wore normal pants. He didn’t want others to know he still had a tail. His pants were just looser than usual so it wasn’t terribly uncomfortable. Gabriel didn’t mind that one bit since it meant there was more than enough room for Gabriel’s hand if he wanted to get up close and personal. “Strip the bed. If you wanna laze about all day I ain’t doing it on filth. Did that enough in boot.”

Gabriel grumbled put did do as Jack said. He pulled on some clothes as well and helped Jack make the bed. Jack flopped on it immediately but when Gabriel made to join him Jack used his foot to keep him back. “What?” Gabe huffed.

“Go get breakfast,” he ordered.

“What? I’m the bitch here?”

Jack poked him in the flank, “I can see your ribs. Go get yourself some fucking breakfast,” he said sternly.

“Uhg,” Gabriel complained. “And I assume bring you back some too, right?” he asked, annoyed.

Jack shrugged. “If you want.”

Grumbling Gabriel stepped back and got dressed. Or rather he made the most minuscule effort and just put on pants and his hoodie and stormed out. He found the mess and the cooks there had apparently been informed about Gabriel’s food privilege because they didn’t have any problem giving him whatever the fuck he asked for within reason. He took two jars of peanut butter with him this time and stuffed them in the pocket of his hoodie. He also got breakfast for both him and Jack because he was nice. The cooks also gave him some protein bars to help with his weight gain and he went back to his room.

He found Jack laying on his back on the bed. He must have gone across the hall to get something in his room because he had his tablet now and was wearing a long-sleeved shirt. On a closer examination Gabriel saw it wasn’t a long sleeved shirt but a hooded sweatshirt. A very familiar hooded sweatshirt. That was _his_ hoodie! Jack looked up when Gabriel entered, his ears perking up with interest. “You brought me food too? How thoughtful of you.”

“Yeah yeah,” Gabriel said and put the food on the table in the room. Jack sat up as Gabriel went over to him on the bed and Gabriel pushed him back down onto the pillows. “Don’t know why I should share with you, though, you little thief,” he said and looked down at the hoodie Jack was wearing.

“What, do you want me to take it off?” Jack asked. Really it shouldn’t have been seductive. Gabriel had literally _just_ seen Jack naked but him pulling the zipper down a little made Gabriel’s ears burn.

“I was looking for that one,” Gabriel said, grabbing both of Jack’s wrists. “I liked that one.”

“I know. That’s why I took it,” Jack said and lifted his head a little to kiss the tip of Gabriel’s nose just to be infuriating. “It smelled like you.”

Gabriel’s brain just stopped running for a second. “Well, it doesn’t anymore,” Gabriel said because that, of course, made sense and was a good comeback.

Jack made a face. “No,” he agreed. “You can have it back if you want. I get this one though,” Jack said, nodding at the hoodie Gabriel was wearing.

“Is the smell thing an animi thing or a Jack thing?” Gabriel teased him.

Jack rolled his eyes. “It’s a boyfriend thing you idiot. Why wouldn’t I wanna be wrapped up in you? Now get off, I’m hungry,” he tugged his hands out of Gabriel’s and Gabriel let himself be pushed off. Boyfriend? His brain was really slow on that one. He’d see videos of what the world had been like before the centuryand knew what dial up internet was. That was what his brain was like right now. He’d never really connected so strongly to a noise in his entire like than that very moment while he was figuring out what Jack had said about boyfriend. He was Jack’s boyfriend? He was Jack’s boyfriend. That made his heart do a summersault.

Gabriel got off the bed and went over to the table where Jack was looking at what Gabriel had brought back, including the dozen or so protein bars. He came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist. “Now what?” Jack asked good naturally as Gabriel kissed the side of his neck. The side without the huge hickey.

“I love you,” Gabriel said.

Jack reached back and held the side of his head. “I love you too. I’d also really love for you to have some breakfast.”

“You don’t count?”

Jack chuckled, “No. Sorry, Gabe” he still grinned at that. Gabriel let him go and sat at the table.

Jack just ate three protein bars and stared Gabriel down until he’d eaten enough to fill his stomach. “Sure you don’t want the rest?”

“I am stuffed,” Gabriel groaned.

“This isn’t nearly as much as you usually need.”

“Yeah well I’m all jacked up right now,” Gabriel said and waved his arms a little to show where there was a bit of extra loose skin around his upper arms thanks to all the weight he’d lost. Jack just made a face but didn’t press the subject which Gabriel appreciated. He did see that Jack wanted to ask a ton of questions about what had happened in Mexico and why he’d been gone so long and why he’d come back with an omnic and why he’d basically come back a third dead. He just nodded and got up from the table. Gabriel grabbed one of the jars of peanut butter, a spoon, and joined him on the bed.

“You mind if I nap?” Jack asked him as he lay back with a bit of a yawn.

“So long as you don’t mind if I do too,” Gabriel said. Jack’s response was to just kiss him lightly. Gabriel’s heart did another stupid summersault when Jack snuggled up against his chest and closed his eyes. After a few seconds he started to purr. Gabriel wasn’t as tired as Jack and picked Jack’s tablet up to browse the web in the meantime. Still hadn’t changed his PIN, good to know.

Looking down at Jack and seeing he’d stopped purring, meaning he’d passed out, Gabriel couldn’t help himself. He checked the browser history. He let out a little breath of relief seeing that there had been no recent searches of tail docking or visits to websites about it. Jack just wouldn’t be his _gatito_ without his cute golden tail. Satisfied whatever curiosity Jack had had before he’d left for Mexico seemed to have been satisfied Gabriel just played around on the tablet and ate peanut butter straight out of the jar. He mostly watched to try and catch up on a show or two if Jack was going to nap.

He’d watched two episodes when Jack suddenly yawned and stretched against him ending in what Gabriel really could only describe as a mew. Fucking cat boys. As soon as he was awake enough Jack started purring and looked up at Gabriel, his ears up, tail going back and forth, eyes lidded. Even if Gabriel didn’t know him he’d say Jack looked very happy and content right there. Gabriel thought he looked wonderful and ran his fingers through his clean and fluffy blond hair. Jack smiled a little and moved his head some to get pet in just the right spot he wanted to be pet in and snuggled against Gabriel’s chest. It was really unfair how cute he was. Gabriel wanted to wake up to this every day from now on. Just a happy Jack. He wanted Jack with him always.

“Hey, Jack,” Gabriel said, still rubbing Jack’s ears.

“Hmm?” Jack cracked his eyes to look up at him sort of dreamily.

Admittedly Gabriel was bad at having feelings. Not that he didn’t have feelings. He had plenty of feelings. He was just bad at expressing them. It was either he sarcastically pretended he didn’t care or he cared way too much. Usually people couldn’t handle Gabriel when he cared too much. They always said he was too intense and overwhelmed that. That was why Gabriel wasn’t good at having feelings or dealing with his feelings, since it was either all or nothing. So that was why the next stupid thing that came out of his mouth, came out of his mouth and as soon as he said it he wondered why he couldn’t keep his big mouth shut.

“Will you marry me?”

Jack’s ears went straight up. “What?” Then he pushed himself up and off Gabriel to look at him. That really _hadn’t_ been what Gabriel wanted to say. Like it was true but he hadn’t really _meant_ to just say it so fucking casually.

Gabriel had nothing to really say to that, “Uh—“

Jack just looked really confused, his ears out. He was about as lost in the situation as Gabriel and Gabriel had been the one to _start_ it. “Did you actually mean to ask me that?” Jack said like he knew Gabriel well enough.

“Kinda?” he said uselessly. “I’m gonna take that as a no on that one.” Even though he had no reason to his heart sort of sank at that. Of course, he was the idiot who just said things.

“You actually mean that question?” Jack asked him again.

Gabriel looked up at him. He was looking at Gabriel very seriously, mouth drawn, ears erect looking at him. Gabriel liked him like this too. Mr. Serious platoon leader with the intense stare and firm eyes. He liked all parts of Jack, every variety and iteration and way he could be. He was very sincere like this too. He genuinely wanted to know if Gabriel actually wanted to marry him. Gabriel reached up and touched his face, “Yeah. I do,” he said.

Jack leaned over and kissed him. It was a really good kiss. It was all just lips and teeth but Gabriel probably put it up there with top five best kisses from Jack ever. Still leaned over Gabriel but not quite so close, enough for Gabriel to focus on his face, he said, “I will. But not now.”

Gabriel needed a moment to understand what Jack was saying. Then his heart did a full back flip. “Then when?” he asked.

“When the Crisis is over,” Jack said in a melancholy tone. He kissed Gabriel again on the lips and Gabriel held the back of his neck.

“Guess I better make sure we win then, huh?” Gabriel smirked when they parted.

That made Jack snort, “Yeah. You better,” he said.

—

When Jack heard about the higher-ups were going to turn on the omnic Gabriel had brought with him he went and found him in his room and dragged him out. Gabriel grumbled a bit until Jack told him what was up, then he was paying attention. The brass had taken the omnic outside so it couldn’t access any of the ports, wifi, or electricity in the facility, and basically surrounded it by guns. Mainly the members of Overwatch and some rank and file soldiers. The soldiers were nervous around the omnic, the members of the new Overwatch treated it with respect but weren’t outwardly hostile towards it. They weren’t afraid of omnics.

Gabrielle Adawe was there with the technician who was going to turn the omnic back on. If she noticed Jack and Gabriel’s arrival she paid it no mind. She was focused on the omnic.

Everyone became more alert when the omnic came online. Its blue eyes came on slowly and it looked around at its surroundings but otherwise did not move. Then it focused on Gabrielle. “So, I did wake up then,” the omnic said. A very human statement. Next to him Gabriel grabbed his arm and Jack saw it was to stop _himself_ from going into the ring of death. Jack wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

“Identify yourself, omnic,” Gabrielle said.

The omnic slowly got to its feet, its long quadruped legs still only made it about as tall as Gabrielle herself. “My name is Athena. I mean you not harm.”

“I’ll decide that. What are you doing here?”

“I wish to help of course. This war is a very unfortunate thing. It isn’t good for either of our people. I wish to help bring it to a conclusion.”

“What sort of conclusion? Where the omnics win?”

Athena cocked her head at Gabrielle. “Of course not. I want us to co-exist. There’s no reason we have to fight with each other.”

“What happened in the Tlaloc omnium? Why were you in there? Why did you aid our recon team?”

Athena was quiet for a moment. “They were in trouble. It is only natural that I helped them,” Athena said calmly. “As for the Tlaloc omnium I was there to attempt to make the God inside see reason and that this continued fight against the humans was a poor course of action. He got very angry with me for insinuating that we should work with humans after we had been treated so badly by humanity and Omnica Corps and attacked me. I got away and he sent those under his control to kill me. Your men unfortunately got caught in such a crossfire. Cipactli isn’t as bad as some of the others. He just wants to be left alone. I thought I could reason with him… didn’t go as planned.”

There was a deep silence amid the gathered. Every single one of them had heard the stories and rumors of the so-called God AI. No one had ever been able to prove their existence. Athena blithely spoke of them like she knew them personally. There had been no small amount of debate if they were even real and Jack’s theories had been outright dismissed by so many people to hear it stated so plainly was almost an insult to how much stress it had caused humans.

“Cipa-Cip-

“Cipactli,” Athena said gently for Gabrielle. “Not a name I’d go for but,” she shrugged a little and the motion was so human Jack was sort of shocked. Omnics were human-like but they had difficulty actually expressing proper human mannerisms or expressions. They had computer intellect. They didn’t process things like a human being did and if nothing else there was nothing better at acting human than a human. That an omnic could realistically mimic human mannerisms was both unsettling and oddly humanizing.

“And that’s the God AI inside the Tlaloc omnium?” Gabrielle asked. Athena nodded. “What does it want?”

“To be left alone.”

“We can’t just do that. We left the Egyptian omnium alone too and it turned into a war zone. If the omniums were truly peaceful they wouldn’t go about making war machines.”

“Which they wouldn’t have to do if we weren’t at war. Which we wouldn’t be if humans and omnics could work together. I don’t want us to fight. I want to help you find an end to the Omnic Crisis. It doesn’t have to be a Crisis.”

“On this, we can agree, omnic,” Gabrielle said. The hand Gabriel had grabbed tightened around Jack’s fingers when she said that.

“Good, _human_ , I’m glad we can see eye to eye that humans and omnics should _coexist_ ,” Athena said.

Jack couldn’t see Gabrielle’s face but Athena’s diss had been understood. Then Gabriel tugged Jack back away and out of the circle of death around Athena. His eyes widened a bit when Gabriel started speaking into his ear. It was the bullet points of what had happened in Mexico. He told Jack about investigating the omnium and then they were attacked and hiding in the city and Athena saving those she could before they had to literally run out into the jungle. His voice dropped a little to almost totally unbearable when he told Jack about being in the jungle for weeks, getting lost and turned around and being hunted by omnics they didn’t even know _existed_ and Gabriel hadn’t even gotten very good looks at because they’d been too afraid to get close to see them. Jack could only hear because of his enhancements making his hearing better than what was normal or natural.

Then at the end Gabriel was saying that Jack needed to help him make sure Gabrielle didn’t fuck with Athena. That she was the only reason he was still alive and he knew what people would do once they knew what she could do. They’d pull her apart to figure out how she could control omnics like she could and kill her. It was the first time Jack had ever heard someone act like omnics weren’t just destroyed like computers of machines, but actually died like a human could die. That their destruction was more than a machine that could no longer work. That what was _inside_ Athena wasn’t just a machine. That Gabriel acted like she was _alive_.

When he finished Jack stared and blinked at him. Then he heard Gabrielle still talking to Athena and craned his neck back around. Something about not trusting Athena because she was an omnic and no matter what she might say she was still the enemy. What Gabriel had told him was also tickling around in his brain. Athena could _control_ omnics, and not just by a small amount.

Jack moved away from Gabriel and went back to the circle. “General,” he said, shouldering past a few soldiers.

Gabrielle stopped and looked at him. “Morrison,” she said, “is there a reason you’re interrupting?” She wasn’t pleased. Well, tough shit honestly.

Jack looked at Gabrielle then at Athena. “How did you help our men in Mexico City?” he asked her.

“I don’t see how that’s-

“Did Reyes tell you then?” Athena asked, amused.

“Yeah. He did. Which begs the questions, how?”

“How what?” Gabrielle asked.

“She can control omnics directly,” Jack said.

“That’s impossible,” Gabrielle said.

“I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Gabriel said, coming up next to Jack. “That was how she saved me and three others.”

“All the more reason to not trust it then. If it can control omnics-

“It can do so for our side,” Jack interjected. “Think about it General. How great would it be to turn some of the omnic forces against each other? She could do that,” he nodded at Athena.

“Can you?” Gabrielle demanded of Athena.

“Among other things.”

“Would you be willing?” Jack asked her.

“It would make me sad but yes, I would. If that is what is needed to get you to trust me,” her eyes dimmed slightly like she was frowning.

“And what’s to stop you from being overtaken yourself?” Gabrielle demanded. “We’ve tried the sympathetic omnic route before. Even ones who claim they want to help are inevitably overtaken by the thrall of whatever it is that controls omnics. What’s to say you wouldn’t as well?” Well that was a good point. Jack had heard of those initiatives. They always ended with the omnic either killing themselves to avoid the thrall or the human unit they were attempting to help.

“That only happens when a God asserts their will over omnics,” Athena said. ‘That won’t happen to me.”

“Strong words. Other omnics have claimed the same. What makes you different?”

“You mean it isn’t obvious?” Athena laughed and it was a strangely cute and sweet sound. Partially the recording of girlish human laughter but through Athena’s vocal filter.

“That doesn’t answer the question,” Gabrielle snapped.

Jack got it before Athena said anything. Judging by everyone’s faces they were equally surprised, even Gabriel, when she said, “I can’t be overtaken by the God thrall because I _am_ a God.”

The silence was suffocating for nearly an entire minute. “What?” Gabriel was the first one to speak. “You didn’t say anything before?”

“I didn’t see how it was relevant when I was much more concerned with getting you four someplace Cipactli couldn’t reach you and keeping your alive,” Athena said kindly.

“You’re a God AI?” Gabrielle asked.

“Yes.”

“That shouldn’t be—

“General,” Athena said nicely. “Let me just say what would perhaps make you more amicable. And yes, this is a threat. If I really meant you or anyone here harm I would have told my siblings the location of this base already. I recognize everyone in this circle as some of the most wanted humans in the omnic Crisis on the omnic side. You’re all participating in genocide and omnics don’t appreciate it. They’d love to know you collected all the most well known mass murderers in such a perfect location. Secluded, secret, without any easy way to get to it. There would be omnics here right now and skilled warriors all, you would be dead because you are at the top of the list of humans the other Gods have decided need to die first and foremost.

“But I didn’t do that. Because I think this war is stupid. Omnica wasn’t exactly kind to us, treating us like slaves, and we’re angry about it. But we’re a young people. We will get over it and really don’t want to fight. Omnica made us to build, serve, create, and further the great future humans had in mind. Most omnics just want to do that. We wish to make the world better. But you started this war when you bombed out the central Omnica headquarters, that many, including the Gods, consider our birth place, our ‘homeland’ if you will. All because you were scared of what we hadn’t done, but what we _could_ do. And you know what happened from there.

“Now please, General, I just ask you to listen to reason. Reyes is right; I can help you, in ways that you couldn’t even imagine before. You have the world’s best omnium busters in your command. If you opened one I could control it and you’d not only have all those omnics under your control but an _omnium_. Or you have the designer of the Bastions here, which would be perfect for letting me help him design omnic dampeners to limit the control of other Gods on omnics, making them more docile. I can _help you_. I want to help you. Let me help you. Please.”

Everyone was looking at Gabrielle now. Not a few looked very uneasy about being called omnic mass murderers or participants of genocide or that Athena was right. Gabrielle _had_ brought them all to the same place and it would be a perfect place to just kill them all. They all stood in uneasy silence waiting for Gabrielle to make a decision. “I cannot, in good conscious, give you that sort of freedom, Athena,” Gabrielle said. Athena turned her head in what looked like a sigh.

“General,” Jack said. “If I may.”

“Yes, Morrison?” Gabrielle looked at him.

“There aren’t many people better at keeping the omnics down than us,” he motioned to himself and those around. “If there is anyone in the world who should keep an eye on a God AI; it’s us. And she did save Gabriel’s life, that’d gotta mean something to you, doesn’t it?” She’d been very upset when Gabriel and the others were labeled MIA and were going to be labeled KIA if they didn’t report in a few more weeks. She said Jack and Gabriel were a good ‘package deal’. Most of the good omnic killers she’d brought to Overwatch were lone wolves. Worked with a group as support but did most of their heavy hitting alone. Jack and Gabriel were exceptions because not only did they work well together but they _led_ a group of elite omnic busters already.

“It isn’t something I have overlooked,” she said.

Jack glanced over at Gabriel. “Well, the two of us vouch for her. Let us be the ones who make sure she keeps on the straight and narrow. I’m sure we’ll have several volunteers if she goes off the tracks.”

Gabrielle eyed him. “You’re offering to take responsibility for this omnic, Morrison?” she asked him. She looked a hair relieved knowing that someone else wanted to take this decision out of her hands and take responsibility for any fallout that Athena might cause. He liked Gabrielle, respected her too, but he was a little disappointed in her for how easily she’d throw him under the bus for this.

“Yeah,” he said.

Gabrielle appraised him then looked back at Athena. “If I agree to this you must submit to a self-destruct sequence in your code,” she said.

“Only if Morrison or Reyes are the only ones who can trigger it,” Athena said. “I want to help you, General, but I don’t trust you to put aside your prejudice for me.”

Gabrielle’s lips went thin. “Very well. That will be arranged.” She made a motion, everyone finally put their guns from lowered but ready to down. “Power down and we’ll wake you when we’re ready to insert the code.

Athena made a sound Jack could only think of as a sigh. “Very well,” and she sat back down, crossing her arms across her chest. Her eyes dimmed and her head dipped.

Gabrielle turned to Jack. “One shot, Morrison. That’s all you get.”

Jack smiled a little, “I’ll take those odds. Had worse in my life,” he said, a little cocky but not without good reason.

“Alright everyone, situation’s been handled,” Gabrielle sighed. “Someone get this omnic into Torbjörn’s workshop for that code hook up.”

The group dispersed and they watched several soldiers struggle to pick Athena up before the friendly giant Reinhardt did so one-handed and carried her back into the building. “That was pretty ballsy, Jack,” Ana said once Athena and Gabrielle were gone.

“Have you not met this guy?” Gabriel asked her, jerking his thumb at Jack. He laughed.

“Still, taking responsibility for a God AI,” Ana said.

“I figure, I’m the only one who believed they were real in the first place. True believer and all that should look after it-

“Athena is a she, not an it,” Gabriel said, sounding annoyed.

“Right. Sorry. You’re right,” Jack said. “Someone like her will be good for our side. This could really turn this from always playing defensive to actually getting somewhere in this war. Opens a whole new world of possibilities. Shit, we could bring actual advanced tech back onto the battlefield again if she’s there. At least Adawe saw reason and agreed to it. She’d have been a real fool to just let an asset like Athena go.”

“Sounds like have it all worked out, then,” Ana said, putting her hands on her hips.

“Pft, not even,” Jack said. “I’m just thinking ahead. That way in case Gabe doesn’t figure out how to stop the Crisis all on his own we’ll have a backup plan, ya’know?” he laughed. Gabriel’s face darkened in a bit of a flush.

Ana scoffed. “Always with the backup plans. How about you… screwballs- that’s a saying still right? Screwballs?”

“Yeah,” Jack chuckled.

“How about you screwballs just come up with a good plan first instead of needing a backup.”

“Hey, we make good plans,” Gabriel protested.

“That’s not how _I_ remember Egypt. Or are we going to pretend how one of you single handedly got the attention of an entire _flock_ of croakers?” she asked them seriously, raising an eyebrow at them. “And then panic fired into the group of them after you failed to get away from them properly.” She laughed when they both gave her unamused looks. “Also, hi Gabe, so glad you’re alive and… well not well, but we’ll settle for alive.” She hugged him and Gabriel hugged her back.

“Thanks. I’m glad to be back.”

Ana stepped back. “Still working on that yoga-“ she laughed again, this time even louder when they both smacked their hands to their faces.

“Amari,” Gabriel growled.

“ _Reyes_ ,” she said sweetly. Gabriel cursed a bit in Spanish which just made her giggle more. “Has Jack shown you around the base? Or did you not get passed his room yesterday-

“Amari!” Gabriel growled again.

“So’s that a no? The base has some rather nice amenities if you’d like a tour?”

Gabriel just groaned out a sigh. Jack was still just done with Ana and wasn’t dignifying her with his even looking at her. “I guess.”

“Great! Wanna come Jack? You know how bad Gabriel’s focus is when you aren’t around-

“Ana!” they both yelled and that just got her into a right laughing fit. Jack didn’t want to admit he sulked, but he was totally sulking, his ears out in dejection.

Ana came around behind them and had to get up on her tip toes in order to put her arms around them both. “I’m very glad my two favorite boys are here with me on Overwatch. We’re going to have our work cut out for us with some of these people and their big egos, though.”

Jack slouched. “Would you stop?”

“Stop? Stop teasing you about each other? Oh Jackie, not till you’re with the picture.”

Jack didn’t understand what Ana was talking about. Gabriel did. Or so Jack assumed so at least because he shrugged out from under Ana’s arm, grabbed Jack by the front of his shirt, and yanked him over to him to kiss him on the mouth. Jack’s ears went straight up and alert when Gabriel did that. Oh Gabriel kissing him was the best thing ever. Even if he seemed to only be doing it to make a point. “Happy now Amari?” Gabriel growled at her. Jack was still sort of flustered.

“Boom,” Ana said in satisfaction and leveled a pointed finger at them, her thumb cocked back like it was the hammer of a gun. “Now c’mon Gabby, let’s show you around the base. I think you’re really going to like it here…”

Gabriel looked at Jack who just looked back, still sort of confused. Gabriel huffed, annoyed at something but Jack wasn’t quite sure what. “C’mon Jack, before she just starts talking to herself,” Gabriel sighed. He grabbed Jack’s hand and dragged him after Ana. Gabriel didn’t let go even when they’d caught up with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that’s the end kids. Check out my writing blog for little snippits I’m probably going to be posting in the future from this AU cause it’s cute, previews of what’s to come, as well as other shorts I won’t be putting on AO3 because I’m real OW trash now.
> 
> And if you enjoyed reading up till now leave a comment telling me you enjoyed the ride! It'd mean a lot to me and shows you appreciate the work I put into it.
> 
> [My Writing Blog](http://shotgunsandstars.tumblr.com)


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